Gerardo's Drive-In, Mexican Restaurant, Grocery Store, and Meat Market in Northside Village since 1977

[Josh]

After reading tale after tale of the delicious weekend-only barbacoa on offer at Gerardo's, I stopped in on Sunday to find out for myself.  Gerardo's is a hybrid grocery-store / meat-market / restaurant, with a couple aisles of grocery / bakery / produce, a cooler of drinks (beer is only to take home, not drink on site), and a small wall of produce, along with a few plastic tables.  While they offer some plates (and a delicious looking menudo), I stuck with the plan, and picked up a half pound each of barbacoa, carnitas, and mollejas (sweetbreads), a couple pork tamales, a bag of corn tortillas, a plastic container of salsa, and a couple limes.  

The barbacoa is made the old way, with whole cow heads, and damn is it good.  Tender, braised chunks of cabeza, slicked with fat, with a some good crusty bits in for texture.  This is meat to make a special trip for (though I am blessed to live a short 10 minute drive away).  The carnitas were also legit, chunks of pork, fried to a crisp exterior in lard, but still tender inside.  Delicious with the salsa verde, but clearly second fiddle to the barbacoa.  I loved the mollejas, though I have a thing for sweetbreads in general, so YMMV.  These were whole lobes of thymus, roasted to a deep mahogany exterior.  The play here is to cut it up into smaller chunks, and mixing some of the softer bits with the caramelized exterior pieces.  The pork tamales were ok, but not among Houston's finest.  There are several other meats on offer, so I'll report back after trying the chorizo, lengua, and whatever else I can find.

[DonRocks]

On 10/24/2016 at 9:45 AM, Josh said:

After reading tale after tale of the delicious weekend-only barbacoa on offer at Gerardo's, I stopped in on Sunday to find out for myself.  

Gerardo's is also on the "Oldest Restaurants in Houston, TX" list, since it opened prior to 1980 (it opened in 1977).

[DonRocks]

Sep 1, 2017 - "A Simple Mistake Turns into Price-Gouging Accusations against Geraldo's" by Craig Malisow on houstonpress.com