What is birria, the hot new Mexican dish flying out the doors of Lexington restaurants?

At age 23, first-time restaurant owner Chris Bravo is most likely Lexington’s youngest eatery entrepreneur.

Following in his father’s footsteps, in January of 2020 at only 22, Bravo opened El Cid — a Mexican restaurant located on South Limestone between the University of Kentucky campus and downtown.

Bravo’s father owned and operated a similarly named Mexican restaurant in Chicago in the 1980s. Like father, like son.

The Lexington version built a following for its street tacos and then the pandemic hit. So Bravo looked for something to boost the menu profile and came up with a staple of Mexican cuisine that has become a cult favorite for foodies: Birria.

Birria is a juicy and delicious hearty meat stew generally made with roasted chili peppers, spices and with either goat, mutton, or beef.

Bravo added his first birria item, Quesa-Tacos, in May and now has several menu items based around birria — and as a result, business is booming.

Some of the most popular offerings — birria and ramen noodles (“a college staple taken to the extreme”), Quesa-Tacos, and Quesa-Burritos — are made with birria and are selling out almost nightly.

Bravo calculates that El Cid sells through 800-lbs. of birria, sometimes known as barbacoa, each week.

Lexington has long had a taste for authentic Mexican food, however for many local fans of south of the border cuisine, birria is an unknown.

El Cid is rapidly introducing a growing number of Mexican food fans to the savory, satisfying dish that originated in the state of Jalisco in western Mexico and has a history that stretches back to the 1500s.

El Cid’s birria is made fresh daily from beef that is slow-cooked over night over an eight-hour period and is melt-in-your-mouth delightful. Bravo points out that there is no freezer on the premises, so the ingredients at El Cid are always fresh. The slow-cooking method ensures that the beef is supremely tender and flavorful.

Traditionally, birria is served year-round and especially at holidays and other celebratory occasions such as quinceañeras, graduations, baptisms, and weddings.

Birria tacos continue to gain popularity across the country as one of the latest and greatest food trends. The hashtag #birriatacos has garnered more than 55,000 posts on Instagram and the growing popularity of the tasty tacos is credited in part due to the fact that birria tacos were recently featured on the hit Netflix culinary docuseries, “Taco Chronicles.”

Now other Lexington restaurants are jumping on the birria bandwagon with similar dishes: Bandido Taqueria has added birria ramen and Mi Pequena Hacienda has a barbacoa pizza with a dipping sauce. El Rancho Tapatio serves birria as a daily special.

Part of the enjoyment of eating birria tacos is dipping the taco into an accompanying cup of consommé that adds extra juiciness and a deeper fuller flavor that must be experienced to be appreciated. Consommé, made with meat juices, chopped onions, dried peppers, spices, and cilantro, is the sumptuous broth that is left in the cooking pot after you have finished stewing the meat.

Some folks believe consommé to be a cure for everything from hangovers to the common cold.

In November, El Cid also began offering a Quesa-Pizza ($15.99), made from homemade birria, cheese, cilantro and chopped onions folded between two marinated flour queso tortillas and served with consommé, two sides of a tomatillo-based hot sauce, lime wedges and a side of sautéed grilled jalapeños and onions for even more flavor, that feeds 2 to 3 people.

You have to dunk your slice in the consommé to get the full-flavored experience and you will not be disappointed.

“I didn’t know birria would be such a big hit,” Bravo points out. “Now I’m planning to announce five other birria-based menu items soon on social media.”

Due to the restaurant’s increasing popularity in just under one year’s time, Bravo is also presently planning to open a second El Cid location in Lexington and will be announcing the whereabouts of the additional location in the near future.

“It has been amazing. I feel like I am back in my hometown of Brandenburg with the tremendous local support I’ve received this past year here in Lexington,” Bravo notes.

Beyond birria, El Cid offers a variety of other delicious and unique Mexican dishes including the humongous “Mucho Grande” ($11.99) — a hard shell foot-long taco available in beef or chicken or other meats — but birria definitely takes center stage on the El Cid menu and rightfully so.

For my money, after trying it for the first time, I am convinced that we need more birria in Lexington, in all its forms.

Rob Bolson is a local foodie who prides himself on eating local. Often.

El Cid

Where: 304 South Limestone

Call: 859-523-3968

Hours: Sunday through Wednesday 11 a.m. to 9:30 p.m. Thursday through Saturday, 11 a.m. to 10 p.m. Dine-out, carry-out, and delivery available.

Online: ElCidLexington.com, @elcidlex on Instagram and Twitter

This story was originally published January 5, 2021 at 6:00 AM.