Gordo’s Cantina, a brand new restaurant on the eastern border of Bushwick, offers something rare for New York: skillfully executed, authentic Mexican food without a solid gold fine-dining price tag (dinner for two at Enrique Olivera’s Cosme can easily set you back $300), set before diners in a low key, friendly space by people possessed of similar qualities.

Reyna Morales is the executive chef at Gordo’s. She is not a marquis name along the lines of Chef’s Table star Olivera. What she is, however, judging from the generous tasting I was treated to one afternoon by her and owners JR Savage and Paulina Loyo-Grigoris, is a chef whose early culinary training in CDMX and 25+ years in the restaurant industry have finally found a megaphone.

Loyo-Grigonis, a Guanajuato, Mexico native, and Queens-born-and-raised Savage first met Morales several years ago when they were up to their elbows in Bar Nine, the couple’s maiden safari on the notoriously treacherous sands of the NYC hospitality industry, located in Hell’s Kitchen. She stayed on when, in 2015, they opened Gordo’s first iteration in Long Island City (LIC), where she was officially anointed “chef.”