Tastemade takes on Manhattan with its first brick-and-mortar restaurant

Back in 2018, digital food network Tastemade announced plans to follow up Tastemade Café (a since-closed brick-and-mortar eatery connected to its headquarters in São Paulo) with the launch of more IRL restaurants.

Now, five years later, the first of those restaurants is opening its doors.

Tastemade Me Tacos opens today in the Citizens Culinary Market food hall at Hudson Yards in New York City. The restaurant is a joint effort between Tastemade and C3 by sbe, a food tech platform. It will offer both in-person dining (from 11 a.m. to 3 p.m. Monday through Friday) and delivery through apps like DoorDash, GrubHub, and Uber Eats.

The restaurant’s menu was designed by Los Angeles-based chef Wes Avila, who founded well-known food truck Guerrilla Tacos and is the owner/chef at Angry Egret Dinette in L.A.

Dishes are a mix of offerings and flavors from Mexico, the Mediterranean, Asia, and the American Southwest, with highlights like a “carnityaki” taco with teriyaki beef; a chicken shawarma taco with feta, sumac, and tahini; and a queso asada taco with carne asada.

Tastemade Me Tacos “represents the next level of Tastemade’s food and lifestyle offerings, strategically growing the company beyond content and into experiential hospitality to forge deeper relationships with the brand’s highly engaged social and streaming audiences,” Tastemade said in a press release.

Larry Fitzgibbon, Tastemade’s co-founder and CEO, added, “Our fans have embraced Tastemade as a go-to destination for global food trends, viral food recipes, and the food industry’s most exciting storytelling. We are excited to bring this passion and expertise to a new culinary experience, Tastemade Me Tacos, and give our fans a dining destination and delivery service to experience the best of Tastemade firsthand.”

Tastemade says it plans to open more “restaurant and delivery concepts” in New York City, Phoenix, Washington D.C., Baltimore, San Diego, and Miami later this month, and in Seattle, Los Angeles, Philadelphia, Atlanta, and the Minneapolis metro area later this spring.