A stack of Cleotilde Juárez Ramírez's chalupas will be one of the best things you eat this year, I can promise you that.
Chalupas Poblanas El Tlecuile is not a secret. The sidewalk operation, run by Cleotilde Juárez Ramírez (she goes by "just Cleo") and assisted by a rotating crew of family members, has been earning high-profile accolades since she first set up shop on the Jackson Heights-Corona border during the early pandemic. Most notably: the modest stand, with basically one dish on the menu, landed on the 100 Best Restaurants list in the New York Times last spring.
And rightfully so! I guarantee a stack of these chalupas will be one of the best things you'll eat all year. Amazingly though, for one lame reason or another, I hadn't gotten around to trying Cleo's creations until a couple of weeks ago, first at the Infatuation's Eeeeeatscon food festival, and then again just a few days later, when I rode the 7 train to Junction Boulevard, found her charcoal-burning tlecuile in front of an empty storefront on 37th Avenue, and, standing on the sidewalk, leaning over to avoid saucing up my shirt, gleefully knocked back as many of these beauties as I could handle.
