La Esquina, NoLita | New York on Tap

Overview

By Chris Lukic

It's hard not to feel like a secret agent as you lead your friends into the unasssuming taqueria on the corner of Kenmare and Cleveland, through the dingy grey employees only door in the back, down through the kitchen and into the catacomb like space that is La Esquina.

Hidden beneath the taqueria on the corner of Kenmare and Cleveland, La Esquina is at this point an open secret, but it doesn't make it any less fun. After you make it though the dingy grey employees only door, past the hostess, down the stairs and through the kitchen, and emerge into a dimly lit space accented by wrought iron and hanging candelabras the quality of food seems almost beside the point. Happily though, rhe food and the cocktails are a solid step beyond just competant, and the prices are surprisingly reasonable.

Why you should go

As secret bars go, hidden behind an employess only door at a taco stand is about as cool as you get.
The food is not at all bad.
The bar boasts over 40 varieties of Tequilla.

What you should know

Look for the gray door with a small red sign marked employees only.
After midnight La Esquina switches from dinner to cocktails.
Make reservations for dinner or for drinks via the secret unlisted number (646-613-8880 or 646-613-7100)

History

Twenty years on, the secret's still out

Getting into La Esquina meant squeezing into a refurbished 1950s-style diner and cracking a door marked "No Admittance"^{1, 2}. We said leading your friends through the employees-only door, down through the kitchen and into the catacombs made you feel like a secret agent, and called it a secret meant to get out. It got out: Frank Bruni said it was "sort of like Studio 54 with chipotle instead of cocaine"¹.

Serge Becker and Derek Sanders opened it in 2005 as a Mexican restaurant and bar, on a SoHo corner that didn't have much going on^{1, 3}. The fan favorites have always included the tinga de pollo tacos, elotes, queso fundido and bistec².

The owners leased out the street-level restaurant, where Santo Taco opened in May 2025, but the subterranean restaurant and party spot is still alive and well⁴.

On a visit in 2026, more than 20 years on, InsideHook found that not much had changed: you still sit elbow-to-elbow in a boisterous, dimly lit dining room². Sanders puts its staying power down to timing, luck and a little bit of fairy dust².

Sources

Researched October 2026.

La Esquina

In 2026