Why Come Here? Secret taqueria serving the best goat taco in NYC
In the age of Yelp, Instagram and ten thousand food blogs per city, it’s pretty damn near impossible to keep a food secret these days. Yet somehow this little spot in Sunset Park has managed to serve the best barbacoa taco I’ve ever had without an ounce of social media coverage. So what’s their secret?
Step One: Don’t have a name. Yes, it seems to sort of goes by 4011 Deli Grocery as I noted above. But that’s just the address followed by a description of what it is. It’s like naming a chair Left Side Living Room Chair. That’s not a name, that’s just how you describe it because you don’t want to give it a name.
Step Two: Don’t appear to be a restaurant. Look like all the other Mexican groceries in the area. Hide the restaurant behind an unmarked door all the way in the back. Make sure the first thing the patron sees in said room is boxes so they are 85% sure they have wandered into the storage room. Yes, only once you look around do you notice a few tables and decorations which bring you to the realization this is in fact the restaurant.
Step Three (and perhaps most important): Don’t be on Instagram. And I don’t mean don’t post photos on Instagram. Or even don’t have an account. This place literally does not exist as a location on Instagram and you cannot add it. As far as the world of social media is concerned, no one has ever been here. In fact I’m starting to wonder whether I was actually there.
Whether the secrecy is intentional or not, it adds to the allure of what might be New York’s greatest neighborhood taqueria. The staff is very friendly and everyone else eating there seemed to be a local. They do advertise Barbacoa (goat) on the window so we decided to get an order. Because this was a stop on a crawl, I didn’t get to try anything else but they have the typical offerings as well as an assortment of fresh fruit juices.
Barbacoa Taco 
This was the best goat I’ve ever had. It was moist, juicy and only a little gamey. The tortillas were fresh and the generous heaping of cilantro and onion give me confidence other tacos here would also be quite good. But get the goat, even if it’s not usually your thing. It was a real game changer for me.
4011 Deli Grocery Inc.
4011 Fifth Avenue
Brooklyn, NY
