Something Savory at Juventino

Revered for its fresh ingredients and certified Slow Food cookery, Juventino is perhaps less well known for the fact that it also serves up some incredible Mexican.

The Fifth Avenue restaurant, which until this week went by Get Fresh Table and Market, excels in a number of Mexican breakfast specialties—from an inspired take on huevos rancheros with homemade tortillas to a Mexican-inspired egg sandwich with Berkshire chorizo. But at Juventino, the real prize are the chilaquiles, a traditional Mexican breakfast dish (and hangover cure) made from simmering lightly fried tortillas in salsa or mole and topping them with cheese, sometimes an egg or meat, and serving alongside beans.

Though I grew up eating Mexican food for more meals than is probably advisable, it was not until I headed eastward to New York City that I encountered chilaquiles for the first time—either I spent my entire childhood eating in precisely the wrong Mexican restaurants or it is something that just never caught on out west.

Since discovering chilaquiles I have made a point to eat them often—an easy take while living in such close proximity to Fonda, Chiles & Chocolate and Tacos Nuevo Mexico. At home I make them often, too, whenever stale tortilla chips make their way into the cupboard.

But the chilaquiles at Juventino may be my favorite. Many varieties of the dish suffer from sogginess, the fried tortillas drowning in sauce. At Juventino, however, the tortillas are redolent of a smoky guajillo mole, though remain still perfectly crisp. The mole is good enough to deserve praise on its own and Beeksman blaak cheese is an interesting (and welcome) alternative to the traditional queso fresco.

Topped with the optional fried egg, there are few more satisfying breakfast options in town.