Take into account Chicatana on 14th Road NW. In my protection, the little storefront doesn’t do a lot to advertise itself past a easy small signal, one thing of a handicap given the ample sources for Mexican fare on the block or a taco’s toss away, together with DC Corazon and Añejo Bar & Grill.

My eyes pegged Chicatana as a discover inside moments of strolling by means of the door. The best facet of the slender inside is a brick wall dedicated to work of an Aztec god and a shaman by Washington avenue artist Jah One. The left facet traces up stools in entrance of a small open kitchen outfitted with a trompo, or vertical meat spit, and a bar backed with a wall of spirits.

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The thought poured into the decor surfaces in a basket of heat tortilla chips served with two sauces: one pureed avocado vivid with lime, one other daring with chiles, garlic and cumin with a touch of sweetness. I nearly choked on my margarita — probably the greatest for miles, an ideal union of mezcal, agave and lime juice poured over a single block of ice — after I requested the person behind the kitchen counter when Chicatano opened.

“Two years in the past,” stated Marcelino Zamudio, one among two cooks and 5 homeowners, together with bartender Hector Flora, an alumnus of the late Tico in Washington.

How may such a seemingly particular restaurant fly beneath the radar for thus lengthy with so little fanfare? Chicatana just isn’t removed from the place I reside, in spite of everything, and I’d eaten at a lot of the competitors.

May or not it’s the identify of the place — a Spanish reference to a sort of flying ant? Zamudio, a local of Guerrero in southwestern Mexico, is so keen to show his viewers on to the insect, he presents diners a free style from an ornate field he retains on the counter and incorporates them into half a dozen dishes. (Ants, amongst different bugs, are a subject of dialog in culinary circles: I’ve appreciated their texture and taste, which adjustments relying on the place they’re from, at eating places together with the world-renowned Noma in Copenhagen.) Chicatana’s dried stash appears to be like like shiny black beans and provides a pleasant pop to dishes as various as esquites — roasted corn blended with mayonnaise, queso fresco and lime — tacos and buñuelos, or Mexican doughnuts.

One of many perks of sitting near the individuals making your foods and drinks is attending to know their tales. Zamudio says he got here to the world in 2009, when he obtained a job as a dishwasher on the unique Rosa Mexicano, and saved his mom’s life recommendation in thoughts: Learn to cook dinner eggs and salsa, simply in case a romantic curiosity doesn’t. Zamudio’s sister labored at Oyamel and obtained him a job washing dishes there, the place he confirmed an curiosity in cooking and superior to work on the road. (He nonetheless works days at José Andrés’s Mexican restaurant earlier than tending to his personal enterprise.)

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Zamudio later helped open Boqueria in Penn Quarter, the place he met Jose Abrego, his co-chef and fellow proprietor, and dreamed up the thought of serving polished variations of Mexican avenue meals — “tapas in a taqueria,” Zamudio calls it.

The faint signal exterior Chicatana guarantees “superb Mexican delicacies.” In my expertise, primarily based on 4 visits, nearly each dish (and each drink) delivers on the pledge. It helps that Flora makes use of fresh-squeezed juices and housemade syrups for his libations and that Zamudio and Abrego carry out their duties with ability, and a la minute.

Chicatana serves one of many lightest, brightest shrimp cocktails round. A nod to sunny Acapulco, the bottom for the sliced poached seafood, pink onion and buttery avocado makes use of Clamato juice blended with contemporary citrus juices and Worcestershire sauce.

You don’t have to sit down in entrance of the kitchen to understand its output. The small plates are the model you see in fancier locations in Washington, and pay extra for than at Chicatana. The sopas present up on a good-looking black plate: faintly crisp rounds of masa unfold with black beans and topped with springy shrimp, threads of guajillo chile, garlic slivers and contemporary cilantro. Prettier nonetheless are the gorditas, a trio of two-bite, pork-stuffed masa truffles garnished with cream, spicy salsa and some crisp ants. Fittingly, the edible baubles are nestled in a slender, hand-painted field.

Taco time! Half the pleasure are the tortillas, formed from masa harina, pressed as a way to nearly learn by means of them and brushed with lard earlier than they land on the griddle. The remainder of the enjoyable is because of the fillings: tongue braised for eight hours in cloves, bay leaves and garlic; grasshoppers sauteed with onion, mezcal and chipotle (and noisy within the consuming); shredded pork, juicy from orange juice and heat with allspice. Carved from the spit, the cumin-zapped meat for al pastor is orange with guajillo, crisp on its edges and sweetly balanced with shaved pineapple. Watching the tacos being assembled from begin to end reveals the precision with which the cooks work, one more reason to goal for a seat on the counter.

The quesadillas are good, too, plate-size corn tortillas that puff up on the griddle and whose fillings embrace sauteed mushrooms, spinach and cheese, a bundle that arrives with a tangy dip of thick Mexican cream dotted with orange oil from fiery salsa macha.

Zamudio says the restaurant was designed to be what diners need it to be, “a taqueria or superb eating.” Relying in your order, although, it will probably additionally function a bridge.

As he readies entire rockfish, one among a handful of entrees, for the flat-top griddle, Zamudio asks if we’ve seen “Like Water for Chocolate,” the 1989 novel turned 1992 movie that noticed legions of eating places providing quail with rose petal sauce. The chef says he shares the fervour for cooking — the ability of a great meal — dropped at life on display. His conviction rings true after we style the rockfish, merely brushed with adobo — a weave of barely candy guajillo peppers, apple cider vinegar and cumin — that flatters the sweet-fleshed catch, festooned with watermelon radishes and cilantro earlier than it’s handed over.

Just a few issues remind us that mortals are at work. The black beans lack depth, and the flash-fried Brussels sprouts tossed with goat cheese and raisins include a splash an excessive amount of agave for my style. However these are unusual and simply fastened points at this in any other case participating cooking present, which distinguishes itself with its deal with freshness and finesse. (Sadly for some diners, all of the seating entails tall stools. And you’ll most likely lean in to speak, given all of the arduous surfaces, though opening hour is comparatively quiet.)

I by no means have room for dessert right here — tacos take priority — however Zamudio generally insists. The flan is a sturdy spherical, higher for the ring of strawberry sauce that circles it and the fervour fruit sauce on high that lends pucker. The sunshine crunch? All collectively now: ants.

By the point you learn this, Chicatana expects so as to add to its repertoire scallop ceviche, inexperienced rooster enchiladas and tlayuda, a Mexican pizza that scatters sliced hanger steak and buttery Oaxaca cheese on a giant tortilla unfold with black beans. I can vouch for the final, which Zamudio gifted this nameless buyer after my second dinner. After my third dinner, Flora was whipping up free of charge drinks, one night time mezcal and tamarind syrup capped with frothy egg white freckled with chocolate bitters. (In response to the surprising hospitality, I left money or tipped additional.)

Classes discovered: It pays to be a daily at Chicatana and, nicely, higher late than by no means. It took me some time to get right here, however you’ll be able to guess I’ll be competing for a stool going ahead.

3917 14th St. NW. 202-516-4924. chicatanadc.com. Open for inside and out of doors eating, supply and takeout 4 p.m. to 10 p.m. Sunday and Tuesday by means of Thursday, 4 p.m. to 11 p.m. Friday and Saturday. Costs: Appetizers $9 to $14, tacos $3.50 to $5, entrees $13 to $28. Sound examine: 78 decibels/Should communicate with raised voice. Accessibility: No obstacles at entrance, though the tables are high-tops. Pandemic protocols: Masks are optionally available; workers are vaccinated.