Mercado Pilar is a new Cuban bakery in Bed-Stuy with an emphasis on savory items   

By Scott Lynch

Ricardo Barreras has been feeding his neighbors the Cuban classics of his youth since he opened the original Pilar Cuban Eatery, a shoebox of a spot on Classon Avenue, back in 2009. That tiny Pilar became a more comfortable full-service restaurant and bar five years later, when Barreras moved the operation over to Bedford Avenue, and then, in 2019, expanded still further when he opened Pilar Cuban Bakery next door on Greene Avenue.

The Bakery concept didn’t survive the pandemic (the Eatery, it should be noted, remains both popular and profitable), so after months of closure Barreras revamped the menu and reopened the space as Mercado Pilar, with a new emphasis on savory items and prepackaged grab-and-go dishes.

“My parents are from Cuba,” Barreras tells Brooklyn Magazine. “I’m from the other Cuba — Miami.” And whether at the Eatery or the new Mercado, “everything here is really, really Cuban.”

Take the Frita, which Barreras calls “the original smash burger from Cuba: Havana street food from the 1940s, and very different from any burger you’ve ever had.” This is a full-flavored, meaty beast of a sandwich, a mixture of beef and pork seasoned like chorizo (it’s very garlicky), topped with what the menu calls “a mound” of hashbrown-like shoe-string potatoes, all on house-made Cuban bread. It’s only available at Mercado, and it is delicious. Really a must for all New York burger completists.

The Frita, ‘the original Cuban smash burger,’ $10 (Scott Lynch)

Barreras is also making Cuban tamales for Mercado, studded with roast pork and seasoned with sofrito. These, too, are excellent, especially when paired with a crisp croqueta or two and splattered with the house hot sauce. “Regular tamales are usually made with dried corn meal,” Barreras explains. “Cuban tamales are made with fresh ground corn, which gives them a whole different character.”

Roast pork tamale, $7; and ham croqueta, $2 (Scott Lynch)

There’s “mojo-marinated” rotisserie chicken here, available as either as a half or a quarter and served with sides, or get your bird pounded, breaded and fried, spilling out of a sandwich, covered in slaw and sauce, and totally worth the mess. Empanadas come baked or fried, and stuffed with things like spinach and cheese; maduro, egg, and cheese; or picadillo, the traditional Cuban ground beef with raisins and olives.

Mojo-fried chicken sandwich, $12 (Scott Lynch)

Soups like Cuban chicken with pumpkin, and “potaje de garbanzo” with chorizo can be slurped down immediately at one of the tables inside (or outside) or taken home from the grab-and-go refrigerated case at the back of the place. Also in the case are various sauces, a mini charcuterie platter, salads, a whole row of vegan specialties, and a Key West-style bluefish dip.

Mercado Pilar serves breakfast all day as well, starring several eggy sandwiches, empanadas, and pastelitos, as well as a Tortilla Española, or Spanish omelet. And, yes, there are some holdover desserts from the Bakery days, which is fortunate because they’re generally very good and also because Barreras left the neon “Bakery” sign up in the front window. The insanely dense passion fruit flan is my favorite, but the tres leches topped with berries, and the guava and cream cheese pie will make you happy as well.

Passion fruit flan, $7 (Scott Lynch)

For all of it, Barreras is grateful. “We have a lot of regulars who are excited to see the place open again,” he says. “And on the weekends, Cubans who live all over the city and even Long Island travel here [to the Eatery and Mercado] as a destination. We are really the only modern traditional Cuban restaurant in New York City.”

(Scott Lynch)

Mercado Pilar is located at 397 Greene Avenue, just west of Bedford SAvenue (and next door to Pilar Cuban Eatery), and is currently open daily from 9 a.m. to 9 p.m. (718-623-2822)