Thursday, May 21, 2026

Happy Thursday, and welcome back to Eats in Queens! We are thrilled to invite you all to Elmhurst Day on Saturday, June 6, a first-of-its-kind neighborhood-wide celebration. We know you’ve already marked your calendars for this special event, and now you can read all about it on our brand-new website. 

We’ve long raved and written about the incredible food scene of Elmhurst–especially in our monthly Next Stop Elmhurst-themed newsletters. But the diversity and dynamism of this neighborhood extend beyond its beloved restaurants and street vendors. There are amazing markets, community parks, and countless cultural, historic, and religious sites to explore too. On Elmhurst Day, visitors will be able to choose from several routes through the neighborhood to best experience and appreciate it all. (And, yes, there will be plenty of delicious food to purchase along the way!)

We have two more weeks to tell you about Elmhurst Day, so please read over the site and feel free to ask us any questions you have. For today, we’re switching gears to focus on a small taquería making a big splash in the next neighborhood over, Corona. Read on to meet Victor Gonzalez and his excellent Tacos Don Jose, and learn why some people are saying his tacos might be the best in the borough.

As always, please forward this email to anyone you know who loves food and Queens (they can sign up here). Wishing everyone a safe and happy (if cool and wet!) Memorial Day weekend, and we’ll see you next week. —Laura Siciliano-Rosen, @eatyourworld, editor, and Jonathan Forgash, Queens Together founder

Clockwise from top left: carnita asada, tacolgando (longaniza), al pastor, tamarind agua fresca (courtesy of Eat Your World)

A Different Kind of Taquería, in Corona

Queens is filled with good taquerías and taco trucks, but very few, if any, reach “destination” status. Victor Gonzalez of Corona-based Tacos Don Jose aims to change that, and he’s already well on his way. 

Since opening last fall (at 37-81 103rd St.), Tacos Don Jose has gotten positive buzz from Eater NY, QNS.com, AOC, and more than a few content creators who’ve called it “New York’s best new tacos.” Gonzalez’s al pastor gets the highest praise: good-quality pork stacked on the trompo, a little burnt around the edges to achieve a wonderful crust, topped with the requisite fat cap and pineapple. The meat, sliced directly from trompo to tortilla, is incredibly juicy and flavorful, with a hue darker than most al pastor. “It doesn’t look like red al pastor,” explains Gonzalez, a Corona local. “Everybody does their marinade with different types of dried chilies. My mom helped me create my own.”

Gonzalez keeps his family close with Tacos Don Jose. The taquería is named for his father, Jose Gonzalez, who passed away last year. His mother, Juanita, helped him develop the recipes not only for the al pastor marinade but also for each of the very fresh self-serve salsas: a mild salsa verde made with roasted jalapeños; a smoky, medium-spice salsa roja, made with chipotles; a “fire” bright-orange salsa khaki fire, made with chiles de arbol; and a super spicy habanero-onion mix. Juanita lives across the street, where she also runs her longstanding bakery, Js Bakery (formerly Beky’s), locally famous for its roscas de reyes, or king’s cakes. Together the family used to own the popular El Rico Tinto restaurant in Jackson Heights (incidentally, they also partnered with Queens Together founder Jonathan Forgash on humanitarian efforts before QT even existed). 

The menu is intentionally small and minimalist at Tacos Don Jose: four tacos and two specials (a delicious, if filling, al pastor gringa, on two flour tortillas with Oaxacan cheese, and a ham and al pastor cemita). Gonzalez wants a true taquería, with tacos made from scratch. “People are used to having lots of choices,” he says. “I just want you to have some nice tacos, and we make them a decent size, so you can try all four. And you’ll be like, OK, I like this one; I’ll come back for this again.” 

With such a focused menu, Gonzalez has worked to elevate every taco he offers, using high-quality ingredients and serving them on exactly 35 grams of hand-mixed, hand-pressed masa tortilla. The al pastor bursts with flavor; the longaniza is a generous pile of scarlet crumbled sausage (the tortillas for both of these pork tacos get swiped in al pastor drippings before being warmed up). The vegetarian-friendly grilled nopales with queso taste very fresh, and the carnita asada is expertly grilled sirloin, sliced thin, topped with a single cebollita. It is, essentially, grilled steak on a tortilla. “We call it carnita asada because when we do barbecues in Mexico, we always say, ‘Yasta la carnita asada!’” Gonzalez explains. “So that means, We’re gonna have a barbecue, you know? I took the name from there because it represents us having a steak taco.”

It’s not your typical chopped carne asada taco, and I couldn’t help but see the reference to El Califa de León, the famously Michelin-starred, standing-room-only taquería in Mexico City, which similarly serves an unadorned whole-steak taco with a separate salsa bar. Gonzalez acknowledges the inspiration, but stresses his tacos are different from others doing this trend, because he uses a real grill. “The smokiness of that steak [char], it’s a different taste from having it cooked on a flat [top] grill,” he says, which most places utilize. The meat tends to stick to a flat top, so a lot of the flavor sticks too, and you wind up having to scrape it. “I was like, Wait, I have a grill. Why not do a carnita asada taco?” 

Tacos Don Jose may be strictly a taquería, but that doesn’t mean Gonzalez is done innovating. He’s currently working on building out a backyard space and plans to host World Cup viewings. He’s recently added refreshing tamarind and jamaica (hibiscus) aguas frescas, with a chamoy-Tajín rim, to the drinks menu (which is otherwise bottled Mexican beverages). He’s considering adding a tripe taco to the mix.

“I want to represent Queens, and what we do here,” Gonzalez says. “[I want to] represent the authenticity of a fresh taco in Queens. I used to go to Brooklyn to have a nice al pastor, which is weird.” Well, that changes now. —LSR

Promote your business in the Eats in Queens newsletter.
Email contact@queenstogether.org for details.