Tetelas, sopes, quesadillas: The CDMX-style Café Miguel opens In Williamsburg

Miguel Guadarrama — and his mom, Maria Pontillo — recreate the street food of Mexico City on Grand Street

Miguel Guadarrama has lived in Brooklyn for about 14 years now, working most of that time at an Italian restaurant, Convivium Osteria, in Park Slope, first as a busboy, then as a server and today as the manager. But the plan has always been to open his own place, a neighborhood cafe specializing in the street food of his youth in Coyoacan, Mexico City.

And for that, he needed his mom, Maria Pontillo.

“Quesadillas, tetelas, sopes … I grew up with all this food,” Guadarrama tells Brooklyn Magazine. “And my mom always made these things, so my idea was always to bring her to New York to have her recipes, and to teach us the right way to make the masa.”

The result, after many months of searching for the perfect spot — and then almost an entire year building it out once he found this storefront in Williamsburg — is Café Miguel, a comfortable, all-day place serving coffee drinks, warm hospitality and stellar versions of those CDMX (Mexico City) street food staples.

The foundation for everything at Café Miguel is the tortilla, made entirely in house. “The tortilla has to be on point,” says Guadarrama. “It has to have the right amount of water, it has to be the right temperature, it has to have the right amount of masa to make it look pretty and taste great. My mom, she knows how to do it.”

After eating numerous dishes here earlier this week, I would have to agree. The tortillas at Café Miguel — both the yellow and the blue corn — are exceptional, rich in freshly nixtamalized masa flavor, springy and chewy, the perfect container for whatever combination of vegetables, fungi, beans, meats and cheeses Guadarrama sends your way.

The hongos y nopales quesadilla, for example, is a yellow corn tortilla folded over a mess of slippery oyster mushrooms and some gooey quesillo, a very specific sort of cheese which Guadarrama gets in 10-pound balls from a tiny shop in Sunset Park. It is the only place, he says, that he’s been able to find it in the city. The quesadilla is topped with pickled strips of cactus, and I recommend dumping the side of nutty salsa macha all over everything.

Hongos y nopales quesadilla, $10 (Scott Lynch)

We wolfed a second quesadilla here as well, a special stuffed with squash blossoms, which was certainly more subtle but no less satisfying. These aren’t the monster belly bombs that have sprung up recently — which can be delicious in their own way — but they do make for enjoyable breakfast or light lunch.

Squash blossom quesadilla, $12 (Scott Lynch)

Another special was more robust: a lively chorizo gordito with crumbly cheese and crunchy greens. This is structured like a sandwich, subbing in tortillas for bread, but you can’t really pick it up with your hands without everything spilling out. No matter, it’s just as delicious when eaten by the forkful.

Chorizo gordito, $11 (Scott Lynch)

The only other meaty option is the chicken tinga, which is shredded and tossed in a tomato and chipotle sauce. You can get this folded into a quesadilla or as a sope, the bird and creamy refried beans sitting atop an extra-thick tortilla “plate.”

Tinga sope, $8 (Scott Lynch)

Finally, there’s Café Miguel’s lovely little tetela, a triangular packet filled with either beans or melted Chihuahua cheese. These are definitely snack-sized (and priced accordingly), but you can add an egg or two for a proper breakfast.

Cactus tetela, $6 (Scott Lynch)

A full menu of coffee drinks is available to help you plow your way through whatever it is you brought your laptop here for. Or, get some housemade, hibiscus-flavored agua de Jamaica.

The room is spacious, with about 30 seats in all, and adorned with hand-painted tiles that Guadarrama says remind him of “a coffee shop in downtown Mexico City where my mom used to take me and my sister when we were little. Like for a special treat. I always remember that.”

And as soon as things get settled, Guadarrama plans on hosting a tacos de guisado dinner on Friday and Saturday nights, starring all kinds of different meat and vegetable stews to complement the tortillas. Right now, though, he’s just trying to enjoy the moment.

“To have my mom here, working together, seeing the dishes she made when I was a kid, and serving it now to people here, it’s like a dream come true.”

Café Miguel is located at 636 Grand Street, between Manhattan and Leonard Streets, and is currently open from 8 a.m. to 4 p.m. daily. Weekend brunch, by the way, is BYOB. (646-945-0554)