Sometimes two is better than one. That was thinking behind Las Gemelas, a taqueria paired with a breezy bar-restaurant from the Espita team.
Located inside La Cosecha, the buzzy Latin market in NoMa, the pair of new ventures is powered by two Espita veterans butcher Rogelio Martinez and tortillera Yesenia Neri Diaz, both partners in the new business, as well as executive chef Robert Aikens and chef de cuisine Benjamin Tenner. The name means “twins” in Spanish, a nod to both the dual concepts and Diaz, who gave birth to twin girls while working at the renowned Mexican restaurant in Shaw.
“The idea behind La Cosecha was very attractive to us,” Tenner says. “There is an enormous Latin American community in D.C., but there’s not really a good central gathering place.”
Las Gemelas was birthed in stages. Taqueria Las Gemelas opened mid-March, while Las Gemelas Cocina Mexicana debuted last week.
Tortillas are a foundational element of the operation. Oaxacan blue corn ground in a molino (a special type of mill) is transferred to a high power Lenin Tortilladora machine that can turn out 2,100 tortillas an hour. Diaz makes them slightly differently at Las Gemelas; they’re lighter and fluffier than those at Espita.
The taqueria offers a selection of breakfast tacos in the morning – crispy hash browns with scrambled eggs, carnitas and eggs, and green chorizo with hash browns – along with a green chorizo quesadilla, parfait-like coffee-chocolate chia pudding layered with spicy sweet granola and chocolate-cashew butter, and drip coffee from Counter Culture. (The cocina offers hot and cold draft nitro coffee.)
The lunch and dinner taco options focus on classics: carnitas, barbacoa, al pastor, adobo chicken with mole, and beef tongue and cheek. “Our formula is pretty simple,” Tenner says. “High quality proteins prepared well and seasoned properly and served simply.”
There is one vegetarian option: fried creminis complemented by kale slaw, habanero mayo, and pepitas. Quesadillas and tlayudas fill out the menu.
Over at the bar-restaurant, daily brunch starts at 9 a.m. with larger propositions, like waffles slathered with grapefruit marmalade; and chilaquiles, a mess of fried tortilla points topped with tomatillo salsa, avocado, queso fresco, and optional eggs. Toasts are on offer all day, including one starring the inevitable avocado, and another with house-made fresh farmer’s cheese and smoked honey.
Dishes never stray above $19. “We want to be the restaurant in the neighborhood you can come to several times a week,” Tenner says. “It’s challenging to go out to dinner as a couple for less than $75-$100 in D.C., so approachability and affordability is always top of mind for us.”
The dessert highlight are dulce de leche and chocolate soft serves, which can be enjoyed separately or swirled. The full treatment involves a sprinkle of salted crushed tortillas chips and bittersweet chocolate sauce laced with mole negro.
Cocktails don’t just feature mezcal or tequila, though both are well represented. “We noticed while drinking at bars in Mexico that they don’t just serve agave spirits,” Tenner says. “They have a gin cocktail; they have a rye cocktail.”
For those not imbibing there’s house-made horchata, a selection of Mexican sodas (Coke, Jarritos, Squirt, Sidral Mundet, and Topo Chico), shifting agua frescas (right now it’s jamaica, or hibiscus), and jugo verde, a green juice with cucumber, serrano peppers, and honeydew melon.
When full capacity dining is the norm again, the taqueria will seat 24 inside and 14 outside with room for another 14 or so to stand outside, while the café will have room for 19 at the bar, 20 in the dining room, and 21 on the patio.
A small market case offers up freshly made goods, including tortillas, mole paste, and chamoy sauce.
As the team works to get Las Gemelas up and running, they are continuing to grapple with the success of their ghost kitchen, Ghostburger, which began operating out of Espita in late August. The goal was to sell 200 cheeseburgers a week. They sold 190 on the first day. Now they produce approximately 1,600 hamburger patties and sell more than 1,000 cheesesteaks every week. “Everybody was looking for comfort food,” Aikens says. “Smash burgers were beginning to pick up fame. We just hit it at the right time.”
The goal is to keep it going after the pandemic. “I would be surprised if it didn’t spin off into its own brick and mortar,” Tenner says. “We’d be crazy not to. But I’d like to get through one opening before we start another.”
Las Gemelas is located at 1280 4th Street NE. The taqueria’s hours are Monday – Sunday 7:30 a.m.-10 p.m. and the cocina’s hours are Monday – Sunday 9 a.m.-10 p.m.
