Review: Can the Yellow Rose Bloom in the Lower East Side?
Amid COVID-19’s second wave in New York City, two San Antonians opened a restaurant serving ‘authentic Texas cuisine.’ As prox.’s resident Texan, I’ll be the judge.
By: Macy Bayern
When the Yellow Rose opened on Nov. 11, Dave and Krystiana Rizo faced two challenges. The restaurant aims to serve the most authentic Texas tacos to New Yorkers, but they were facing the challenge of opening their first restaurant during COVID-19’s second wave.
The restaurant serves “Genuine Cosmic Texas Cookin’,” according to its Instagram. The Rizos, it turns out, are transplants from San Antonio, Texas. As a new-to-New-York San Antonian myself, I felt compelled to pay them a visit.
The name Yellow Rose is most well known from Elvis Presley’s rendition of the song, “The Yellow Rose of Texas,” which referred to the story of a young woman believed to help Texas gain independence from Mexico. The Yellow Rose restaurant began as a pop-up around town at the beginning of 2020. The Rizos’ Texas cooking made appearances at restaurants in Bed-Stuy, Crown Heights, the West Village, and Bushwick. Its most recent pop-up was in partnership with Feast, located at 102 Third Avenue in the East Village — the address Yellow Rose ended up inheriting.
The Rizos didn’t plan on opening a Yellow Rose establishment during a global pandemic. Feast is one of the more than one thousand restaurants that have closed because of COVID-19, and when the time came to close, Yellow Rose had just come off of wide success at the location.
The decision to stay “just kind of happened,” Dave said. “It really just fell into our lap in a weird way.”
Feast announced its closure on Nov. 1, and, ten days later, Yellow Rose reopened the building’s doors, featuring a limited menu that includes tacos, vegan queso, fideo hominy soup, Margarita jugs and Texas sheet cake. Dave said the menu is small for the time being to make take-out easier during COVID-19.
Growing up in San Antonio, Dave ate the local favorites: breakfast tacos at My Little Taco House, carne guisada at Ramona’s Cafe and concha bread at Panifico. When he and his wife moved to New York four years ago, he couldn’t get his fix.
“I’ve only ever lived in San Antonio, so a lot of my identity is living in San Antonio and eating at these spots,” Dave said. “We got here and we were like, ‘We can’t be the only ones feeling like this.’”
He’s not.
When I picked up my to-go order from Yellow Rose, I grinned under my mask as I saw Topo Chico sparkling water in the mini fridge and heard employees shouting orders in the kitchen: “Two chicken verdes coming up!”
As I sat in my apartment, unwrapping the foil around my bean and cheese taco, I was both cynical and hopeful. Specialty restaurants like Yellow Rose have the burden of recreating a flavor that is often embedded as a distinct memory in someone’s mind. But, in this, the Rizos were successful.
The flour tortilla was consistent — and it stayed intact, as it should. Yellow Rose fans on Instagram appreciate this attention to detail. Aaron Comess, a NYC musician and photographer, commented on an Instagram post of Yellow Rose’s tacos: “Best flower [sic] tortillas I’ve had since I lived in dallas 30 years ago.”
The tortilla held the weight of the flavorful refried beans and shreds of cheddar cheese. The beans are heirlooms, a bean variant commonly used in Texas, which offer a slight spice and smokiness. The cheese, though, did not adequately melt into the beans.
The carne guisada and chicken verde tacos were reminiscent of the tacos one would get from a local San Antonio meat market: the sauce and meat tenderized and mixed together, free from condiments in the tortilla. Typical “Tex-Mex” often has lettuce, pico de gallo or cheese on top of tacos. Dave said they don’t include these toppings because Yellow Rose isn’t really Tex-Mex.
“We’ve been straying away from the term ‘Tex-Mex’ just because I feel like I don’t necessarily identify with that,” Dave said. “Calling it Tex Mex just doesn’t feel like what it is. Tex-Mex is on the Riverwalk, not the west side of San Antonio. I would rather call it Texas cooking, because that’s what it is to me.”
Those unfamiliar with this type of taco might not appreciate its simplicity. A Yellow Rose critic on Yelp, Vaughn F. of Brooklyn, said, “I’m glad I tried these tacos, I kinda get the appeal, but the style isn’t really my thing.”
The vegan queso, for me, was a miss. Dave previously worked at Superiority Burger, a predominantly vegetarian and vegan restaurant also in the East Village. Dave said he became accustomed to making vegan food, including a queso, and wanted more people to be able to enjoy it. The cashew queso is tasty, for what it is, but didn’t satisfy like the taste of real cheese.
While Yellow Rose has only been open for three weeks, Dave said business has been good so far. Dave hopes to expand the menu in the coming months, perhaps even featuring some Texas-style German and Czechoslovakian dishes. While he loves Mexican food, he said, he doesn’t want to limit the variety at Yellow Rose. Until then, I’m glad to know I can just hop on the A train for a taste of home.
Bio: Macy Bayern is an M.S candidate at the Columbia Journalism School, covering the hospitality beat for prox. She focuses mainly on how COVID-19 has impacted the sector. A native Texan, Macy is still adjusting to the New York lifestyle. Please excuse her if she slips a “y’all” in here or there.
