Tacos from Lebanon land in Brooklyn.

El Cedro marries tahini and tortas to brilliant effect.

I’d never considered tacos to be Lebanese in origin, but it turns out that back in 1940, Lebanese immigrants in Puebla, Mexico, were cooking lamb and pork on vertical spits (shawarma style) and plating their roasted meats and all those drippings on warm pita bread for a dish they called tacos árabes.

Now El Cedro, a restaurant among Atlantic Avenue’s sweet little village of Yemeni, Palestinian, and Arab-American cafes and spice shops, has opened to give those Lebanese tacos a restaurant to call their own. I stopped in for lunch yesterday with my friend Ali, and while she circled the block for a few hours looking for a parking spot, I chatted with Ryadh Habib, the owner of this charming month-old taqueria.

Ryadh, who is Tunisian, explained that the concept was dreamed up by his business partner, chef Maher Chebaro, who was born in Beirut and has cooked in New York for ages, most recently at Cafe Gigi on East 9th Street. While immersed in Italian food, Chebaro had actually been pondering another idea, a place that would marry his Lebanese roots with Mexican street food. 

Last month, the pair quietly opened El Cedro; the owners were not expecting much of a response. But the reviews and social media accolades started immediately, with Eater, and The Infatuation leading droves of fans to this bay window cafe filled with mix and match tables and chairs, with Lebanese art and Mexican posters hung on the walls, and colorful tins filled with cutlery adorning every table. 

Quite frankly, the restaurant deserves the attention. The food and the service is wonderful. And nothing on the menu is over $20 (most tacos are two for $12) so it’s a great way to have a reasonably-priced and absolutely joyful meal, something of a unicorn these days of rising rents and food costs. The team will be finishing up their backyard patio space soon, and they hope to have a liquor license in place by the time the weather is nice enough to sit outside. In the meantime, the space is BYOB with no corkage fee.

Chef Chebaro’s menu starts with mezze, moves onto tacos, and also includes a selection of oversized tortas, or sandwiches. From the mezze section, we started with the Randera Dip, a trio of housemade dips in the colors of the Mexican flag: a nutty walnut-and red pepper muhammara, a bright green guacamole, and thick tart labneh, each served in a pretty ceramic bowl tucked into a platter of freshly-fried tortilla chips and warm pita.

I’m also thinking about the Taboule Ceviche Tostada, a cracker of a tortilla topped with fresh herbs, diced tomatoes and cucumbers, a squeeze of lime, and a flurry of chiles. I’m curious about a dish called Kibbe Queso which is a classic kibbe, filled not only with spiced beef and bulgur but also chorizo, cheese, and poblano peppers. When summer is in full swing, I’m also planning to smash that Watermelon Salad with mint, feta, serrano, cucumbers, and avocado. 

Now, the word is out already on the fabulous Samke Tacos, so I’m not breaking any news here, but I will echo my fellow food writers and say that these are terrific: fat hunks of cod are battered in a greaseless golden puff of crust, served on soft warm tortillas (made fresh daily by a woman “from New Jersey”), topped with a nest of bright magenta cabbage, and slicked with spicy mayo, then garnished with shaved radishes and lime wedges. 

The Shawarma Tacos (left) and Samke Tacos at El Cedro.

If you’re a fan of grilled halloumi, you’ll like the tacos fashioned from slabs of that briny cheese, warm and marked from the grill, topped rather simply with fruit pico de gallo.

Hard shell taco enthusiasts nostalgic for the days of those Ortega clamshells, should go for the Crunchy Tacos filled with beef sujuk, a dollop of labne, and a zippy citrus herb slaw. Other soft tacos to consider include the Carne Asada: grilled steak with avocado tahini and pico de gallo, and the Shawarma, made with chicken thigh, toum (a white Lebanese garlic sauce) and pickled turnips. 

We didn’t have room for any of the tortas, but I’ve got my eye on the “Lamb Kamounia Torta Ahogada,” a cumin-braised lamb torta that’s literally drowned in sauce, with escabeche. The dish hails from the Mexican state of Jalisco, and I’m so very happy it has landed in Brooklyn.

If you’re a Chicken Milanese person, you’ll want Maher’s version, a cemita (a sandwich on a big fluffy roll) stuffed with a dukkah-crusted chicken cutlet, topped with string cheese, avocado, harissa mayo, and pickled onions, lettuce and tomato. 

All that was left of my Samke Tacos.

Before we left, I asked Ryadh about the name of the restaurant, which translates to Cedar in Spanish. Ryadh explained that the tree is the symbol on the Lebanese flag and also of the Lebanese Mexican Community. He said liked the name because it speaks to the universality of food. “Cedar is a tree you find in every language and every culture,” he said. “It represents the intersection of a lot of cuisines and so much history. You’ll find it in Mexico, in Spain, and across the Mediterranean. For us, it represents what we are doing here. This idea that when you dig deep, you find commonalities. Our menu is not fusion, it just shows you the similarities, from the same place, in a different mixture.” 

We hugged goodbye; it’s that kind of place where you feel the welcome and the hospitality in a way that inspires hugging. I congratulated him on opening, and told him how much we loved our meal and that I would be back soon with my kids and more friends. He was beaming. “We don’t want to make it hard,” he told me. “We wanted to open an easy place where you don’t have to think too much. It’s not complicated, Just come and eat and enjoy.” 

El Cedro is located at 144 Atlantic Avenue, and is currenetly open Tuesday - Sunday 11:30-10pm. Check back for expanded hours soon as Ryadh is planning to open 7 days a week shortly. Follow El Cedro.