The team behind Greenpoint favorite Taqueria Ramirez have their sights set on the West Village, with a seafood-forward location set to open this summer.
Taqueria Ramirez enjoyed easy fame since opening two years ago—New Yorkers and tourists alike flock to Greenpoint for their al pastor and tripe tacos (Pete Wells included it on his famous Best 100 Restaurants in NYC list). In 2024, on the heels of their successful Brooklyn launch, the restaurant group opened East Village outpost Carnitas Ramirez—a succulent love letter to pork. And now, the Brooklyn taco spot is once again making moves.
On Opening Day, Taqueria Ramirez inaugurated a food pop-up at Citi Field, where they’ll be serving nopales and saudero through July 12 (more on that soon). On March 31, James Beard Foundation announced the 2026 finalists, and Taqueria co-owner Giovanni Cervantes is in the running for Best Chef: New York State for Carnitas Ramirez. But the really big news is: Taqueria Ramirez will be opening a seafood-centric West Village location—think mariscos and natural wine.
“It’s going to be more of a seafood bar” than a proper restaurant, says Cervantes of the West Village taqueria concept. He and his partner, Tania Apolinar are aiming for a summer opening. “Realistically speaking, by the end of June,” Cervantes says, “the latest would be mid-July.”
The West Village Taqueria Ramirez project will take shape at 20 Cornelia Street, “right across the street from where Taylor Swift resided,” says Cervantes with a knowing chuckle. While foot traffic will not be an issue (locals, such as this writer, rarely pass by without seeing young women taking photographs of the building at 23 Cornelia Street, where Swift and Karlie Kloss shared an apartment), gastronomically, the block could use a little zhuzh.
While Palma continues to serve reliable Italian and Le Gigot does the same with French, the ramen at Menkoi Sato and tacos at Tacombi are passable, at best. Its neighbor to the North, Dell’Anima has not made a dent and the less said about the onomatopoeically half-hearted Sip N Guzzle the better. Fact is, an award from World’s Best Coffee Shops (who says they know anything?) may have created mad lineups outside of Arcane at 27 Cornelia, the block has not been a food destination since Pearl Oyster Bar* packed up post-pandemic (in 2022).
While Cervantes is staying tight-lipped on the menu, he wants New Yorkers’ experience with his maritime fare to be novel. “It will be a really concise menu with seafood that you definitely cannot not find in the city,” he says, adding that there will be both hot and cold dishes comprising the small bite selection. “We’re moving towards finding really unique, quality products, but not in a complicated execution—with great wine.”
The wine will be natural (sorry haters), from a rotating list sourced “from all over the world” by two experts whom Cervantes already has on the case but won’t name. What he can say: “The Champagne and cava will be really good. We’re focusing a lot on that as well as natural wine.”
People looking for another Taqueria Ramirez will have to look elsewhere (specifically at the corner of Smith and Degraw in Carroll Gardens). “This is a totally new adventure, set apart from what we’ve done so far,” Cervantes says of the West Village location. “This is a project we’ve been thinking about opening for a while.” He says that the West Village means something to him and Apolinar, and that they want to create “a place for the neighborhood,” focusing on a casual dining approach, with high quality dishes that are at once original and unfussy.
For an overheated part of the city—not exactly swimming in quality, unpretentious places, neighborhood joints, and exciting, original cuisine—this is just the kind of fresh approach for which many of us have been angling.
*This is not to say that Pearl Oyster Bar was just any “seafood spot.” There may be no such thing as a perfect restaurant, just as there’s no such thing as a perfect romcom, but Pearl may be as close as we get. We’re talking When Harry Met Sally. There were no reservations, but the wait was never extraordinary (and it was always fun to sit in the window with a glass of wine); the service was famously brisk, and maybe brusk, but never rude (or wrong); and the food—my gosh—that lobster roll was so untouchable that when Tony Soprano came out of his coma, it was the first thing he asked for. Not gabagool, not his wife’s ziti or ricotta pie: “The lobster roll…Pearl Oyster Bar” he told Carmella from his hospital bed. Real food people loved it too.
