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Believe it or not, although New York is a melting pot of ethnic cuisines that cater to all flavor profiles and cultures, the city has yet to fully awcknoledge and revel in the deliciousness that is New Mexican food. That, however, might soon change—courtesy of Ursula in Crown Heights.
Opened by chef Eric See in the middle of the pandemic—on September 30, 2020, to be precise—the New Mexican cafe is a tiny spot that dishes out an extraordinary menu captained by four different breakfast burritos that New Yorkers line up for each morning.
"We specifically make New Mexican-style breakfast burritos," explains See. "The two essential elements are shredded hashbrowns and New Mexican red and green chiles."
Patrons can choose among four options: a vegetarian version made with scrambled eggs, hashbrowns, cheddar and New Mexican red chile; a similar one with bacon added to the veggie version; a vegan burrito boasting pinto beans, hashbrowns, New Mexican green and red chiles; and the most popular among them all, a burrito featuring chorizo, the Spanish pork sausage that makes everyone go ga-ga.
Each one raking in at $10, the sandwiches are served on the daily until NOON. Be prepared to stay on line, though: Ursula is a tiny space with no indoor seating that only allows for a single customer to patron the premise at once. Add to that social distancing guidelines and you're in for a 15-minute queue each morning. It'll be well worth it, trust us (See does sell around 150 burritos daily, after all).
The cafe owner reveals that, although always enthralled by the cuisine of his native New Mexico, his venture into breakfast burritos almost happened by chance. "I owned the Awkward Scone last year and I had to close in the middle of the pandemic," he recalls. "I didn't open an eatery with the intention of selling New Mexican-style breakfast burritos but, given my background as a psatry chef, a lot of menu items referenced the life and experiences I had. I caught the attention of New Mexicans living in the neighborhood and they kept asking me to make [the burritos]. I eventually caved."
Fast-forward a few months and Ursula was born. "I needed a job and so did my staff," explains the chef. "I had an opportunity to open a place in Crown Heights and I thought that New Mexican food is very carry-out and take-out friendly because it's not super fussy and it lent itself to the restrictions we were under. It seemed like a concept that could weather the storm."
See also mentions the mood that New Yorkers have been in for 14 months. "We were all at a point of reckoning with our own life and cultures and how we were detached from that last year so this was an opportunity to re-connect." Speaking of family connections: Ursula is See's grandmother's name.
The rest of Ursula's menu is also worth exploring, especially given the fact that the staff sources some of the ingredients—from the blue corn to the chile, juniper ash and the beans—directly from New Mexico. In addition to all of the burritos, we suggest you sink your teeth into the popular green chile buttermilk fried chicken sandwich, prepared with smoky pickles, kombucha-green tomato slaw, organic chicken thigh and sweet green chile jam on a house-made brioche.
When asked about the uniqueness of New Mexican food and its relatively recent appeal to New York palates, See mentions the comfort involved in devouring a breakfast burrito. "It's heavy, it's saturated and it's delicious," he says. "I think that's the kind of food and comfort that we've been missing throughout last year. We have to reconnect with our souls and our traditional foods."
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