Quesillo
This week, a new lunch joint joined the neighborhood: Little Nica, a pop-up stall run out of Little Muenster on Front Street in Dumbo. Falling in line with Little Muenster’s wheelhouse of cheese and bread, the pop-up shop will serve Quesillos – Nicaraguan street food composed of handmade corn tortillas, semi-soft cow’s milk cheese, pickled onions and crema – at the restaurant’s Front Street location through September.
Husband and wife ownership team Vanessa Palazio and Adam Schneider are the brains behind both Little Muenster and the pop-up shop concept. Schneider explained the impetus for the summertime shift to Nicaraguan food: “Vanessa’s family is Nicaraguan and she is a first-generation American and it has always been an interest to bring Nicaraguan cooking to the States. Americans have become accustomed to Latin flavors and we feel that we can expand their horizons even more.”
The tortilla and fillings are rolled into a cone, and are meant to be eaten with one hand. Add-ons include smashed avocado, slow-roasted pork, and braised lengua (tongue). “Think quesadilla meets burrito,” he says.
Menu items cost between $5.50 and $8.50, and the shop is open from 11:30 AM to 4:00 PM Monday through Saturday.
Already smitten with Little Nica’s Quesillos? Perhaps a permanent Quesillo shop is in our future, “if people show enough interest,” Schneider says.
Little Nica’ (Nicaraguan Street Food Pop-Up)
145 Front Street, Brooklyn NY 11201
Phone: 646.499.4331
Hours: Monday-Saturday: 11:30am-4pm
(Jessica Thurston is a DUMBO resident and contributor to DumboNYC. With a background in environmental sustainability and urban planning, she loves learning about everything going on in the neighborhood – and drinking iced coffee from One Girl Cookies.)
