From Chile to Connecticut — with a stop in a French kitchen
The Munoz del Castillo family came to America from Chile in the early 1980s. They didn't come with a restaurant plan. They came with a way of cooking — careful, patient, deeply felt — and that way of cooking eventually became Rincón Taqueria.
Maria grew up in the kitchen of her parents' French restaurant, Bistro du Soleil, in Norwalk. Her mother, Soledad, trained as a French chef and taught Maria everything she knows about building flavors from the bottom up. Long braises. Skimming fat. Patience as an ingredient.
When Maria told her mother she wanted to open a taqueria, Soledad wasn't sure. Serving "ordinary Mexican dishes" after French culinary training felt like a step backward. But Maria had a different vision: she'd visited taquerias up and down the East Coast and in California, and she saw something nobody was doing.
"I convinced her I could make tacos and other Mexican dishes the French way."
— Maria Munoz del Castillo, to The New York Times
What "the French way" actually means
At most taquerias, meats are cooked quickly. At Rincón, they go into braziers the night before and cook low and slow until they fall apart — often 10 hours or more. Then every bit of fat is carefully skimmed off. What's left is meat that's intensely flavorful but clean, tender but not greasy.
It's why the burritos are enormous but never heavy. It's why the braised beef in a taco tastes like something that took all night — because it did.
This is what makes Rincón different. Not a gimmick. Not a fusion concept. Just a family that knows how to cook, applying everything they know to the food they love.
Hidden in plain sight
The New York Times found us in a strip mall on Route 1 in Norwalk. The parking lot had three Lexuses, a Mercedes, and a Honda Accord. Inside: knotty pine panels, Mexican tiles, Tiffany-style glass on the refrigerated cases, six bowls of dried chiles behind the counter.
The staff dressed casually. The first thing they said to every new guest was: "Is this your first time here?"
That hasn't changed. That's the whole thing, actually.
