Alan Delgado and Ivy Mix in Titán’s back garden.
Photo: Bobby Gallagher
What kind of neighborhood restaurant thrives in a neighborhood as hard to define as Dumbo? The area’s demographic — tourists, parents (and their nannies) pushing double-decker strollers, influencers, and creative directors — converges around the northern border of Brooklyn Bridge Park but doesn’t offer much cohesion. Chef Alan Delgado thinks the answer is tacos.
Specifically, phenomenal tacos (Delgado is the owner of Fort Greene’s Los Burritos Juarez, renowned for its flour tortillas), a large backyard that sits beneath the Brooklyn Bridge, and margaritas from Ivy Mix, one of the city’s best bartenders, who ran Leyenda on Smith Street for ten years. Delgado, Mix, and third partner Julian Brizzi (of Rucola, Grand Army Bar, and Celestine nearby) aren’t going overboard with ambition; they’re betting that, even in the era of TikTok bait, good food in a nice room may be enough. “What I learned with Los Burritos is that if you do something fun and have the right team, it’ll be successful,” Delgado says. “If you build it, they will come — but you have to build it right.”
Delgado and Mix began toying with the idea of opening a classic cantina during a pop-up at Mix’s bar Whoopsie Daisy last fall. Brizzi proposed opening inside the former Gran Electrica space. Lauren Broder, a co-founder of Celestine, joined as managing partner, and at last, Titán will debut in mid-June.
The menu is designed to fill what the partners describe as a “real void” of well-executed Mexican cooking in this part of Brooklyn, especially since Gran Electrica closed in 2024. For tacos, there will be carne asada with Chihuahua cheese, cod in masa tempura with slaw, and dorade with chile colorado, papas, and salsa cruda. For sharing, a trio of aguachiles and the verde and rojo salsas from Burritos Juarez, as well as larger mains like goat ribs with black beans, eggplant Milanesa with mole and chiles güero escabeche, and butterflied porgy with nopales and chipotle and masa dumplings. Homey plates of sopapillas, pan de nuez, and tres leches will round out the desserts.
On the drinks side, Mix is quick to explain that Titán is not a tequila bar. Each cocktail and nonalcoholic mixed drink on the list will highlight a combination of herbs, flavors, and spices from Mexico. Options could include cantaloupe, carrot, and habanero; mango, orange, golden beet, and ancho chile; and tomatillo, peach, basil, and serrano. The bar is filled with Mexican rums, whiskeys, and gins as well as lesser-known agave-based spirits like sotol and bacanora. A rotating michelada and sangrita list, plus a selection of light Mexican beers, will be good for groups, as will the margaritas. “We’re bringing back the Leyenda margarita on draft,” Mix says, adding that she has hired back one of her former bartenders from Leyenda to help make them. “Three ingredients — blanco tequila, Cointreau, and fresh lime juice. Oh, and a citric–malic acid blend to elevate the acidity.”
It’s all a good fit for the space. Limewashed walls, terra-cotta finishes, and rich wooden beams give the rooms — in an 1824 landmark building that was once a Prohibition-era illegal saloon — a lived-in feel. “It looks like an old Mexican home in there,” Delgado says. “We want it to be kind of this comfortable oasis in a wealthy, touristy part of Brooklyn.”
Mix adds that even if Dumbo isn’t the first place people think of as a residential neighborhood, it’s filled with neighbors. “We had a very strong regular scene at Leyenda, and I’m excited to try and create something like that in Dumbo,” she says. “All the parents have their kids in some kind of weird activity here, so come have a beer and taco with us while your kid is in fencing class.”
The restaurant will open at 5 Front next month.
Photo: Bobby Gallagher
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