Border Town in Greenpoint is the Next Contender for NYC’s Best Flour Tortillas
Once a daytime pop-up, the new restaurant launches with a dinner menu that’s an ode to Northern Mexican cuisines
Jan 22, 2026, 6:53 PM UTC
Nadia Chaudhury is a born-and-raised New Yorker who is an editor for Eater’s Northeast region and Eater New York, was the former Eater Austin editor for 10 years, and often writes about food and pop culture.
The ideal flour tortilla is very thin with a slight chew, made with high-quality grain and a bunch of pork lard. This is the crux of acclaimed New York pop-up Border Town from chef Jorge Aguilar. During the pandemic, he sought to recreate these Sonoran-style flour tortillas, which he grew up on. “I wanted to make what I wanted to eat,” he tells Eater. “I don’t know if I perfected it, but I made that version of what I remember.” And it turns out, it’s what the rest of New York wanted to eat, too, and the pop-ups often sold out.
Border Town has now turned into a sit-down restaurant with a full bar in Brooklyn, with the help of new co-owner Ben Turley (formerly of Meat Hook) and head bartender Patrick Bradley. The new Border Town opened in Greenpoint at 189 Nassau Avenue, at Humboldt Street, on Friday, January 16.
For now, Border Town is open for table-service dinner only because the kitchen has no gas, but the unexpected curveball has its benefits. “You already know us for our mornings; see what else we can do,” says co-owner Amanda Rosa. Border Town is walk-in only, which makes it a neighborhood- and family-friendly space.
Border Town's dinner menu includes frijoles con veneno, where Aguilar takes refried beans and adds carne con chile, served with flour tortillas or corn tostadas. The guacamole norteño is made fresh-to-order, mixed with red salsa pork belly chicharrónnes, and paired with an Oaxacan corn tlayuda.
Rosa is excited about the tacos de nada, a plate of fried corn tortillas filled with potatoes, paired with tomato broth, queso fresco, and salsa verde. She and Aguilar visited popular Hermosillo vendor Tacos de Nada. The Greenpoint restaurant is Border Town’s first time delving into cocktails. Bradley, who previously worked at Lower East Side bar Mary’s, created a menu highlighting lesser-seen Mexican agave spirits while balancing out the food.
The Desert Negroni uses Cardenxe sotol. The Picafresa is a spicy-sweet strawberry-tequila-mezcal concoction whose name is a nod to the Mexican candy. The Coco Carajillo is topped with coconut whipped cream and shaved dark chocolate sourced from his family’s shop in Elmhurst, Schmidt’s Candy. Rosa is particularly thrilled to be serving caguamas, huge beer bottles that are popular in Northern Mexico.
Border Town was built with the Andre Architecture firm. A lot of work went into rebuilding the corner space, which was originally half of a larger Polish grocery store. The trio convinced the landlord to rent them half the space; they constructed the dividing wall themselves.
Border Town will change as time goes by. When it will for the daytime, it’ll have those tacos de guisados, with fillings like carne con chile, papas con rajas, manchaca, deshebrada, and a vegetarian mushroom iteration. The burrito is packed with scrambled eggs, refried beans, caramelized onions, bacon, potatoes, cheese, and pickled jalapeños. Breakfast plates come with a choice of guisado, sopa fria (a Mexican pasta salad), refried beans, and tortillas or tostadas. Driftaway is providing the beans for coffee, which includes an iced cafe de olla.
“I’m so excited for what this is going to grow into, because this truly is the first draft,” Rosa says. “We have so many more things that we’re going to bring to the table.” She adds, “The neighborhood will tell us what we need to be.”
Currently, Border Town’s hours are from 5 to 10 p.m., Wednesday and Thursday; 5 p.m. to midnight, Friday; 3 p.m. to midnight, Saturday; and 3 p.m. to 9 p.m., Sunday.
