Prepare for La Lucha

One of the most stressful things to do in New York is to plan a birthday party.  There are so many places to choose from and you want to choose just the right place - a place where you look like you know what's cool and where you know your friends (ALL of them from all different parts of your network) are guaranteed to have a good time.  Then, on top of picking the right bar, majority of the time you need to pick the perfect dinner spot to start the night with your close friends - for those of you planning a party in the East Village I can take away some of that pre-party stress - head to La Lucha.

In anticipation of my boyfriend Andrew's birthday we searched far and wide for an ideal BYO restaurant to get us on the right track before his party.  We were tired of sushi and Italian, so we finally decided on La Lucha, a small boxing themed Mexican taqueria on Avenue A.  After making our reservation we learned La Lucha is not longer BYO (no big loss!) and serves only beer (all beers are from Mexico and are $5 per bottle). 

The interior is decked out in Mexican boxing paraphernalia from old school posters to action figures and a retro movie based on Lucha Libre is projected on repeat across the entire southern wall of the restaurant, which really brings the sensory experience here to another level.

The food follows the boxing theme and is separated by rounds (chips and salsa are provided right when you are seated and refilled all night) - for the first round we tried the guacamole, fried cheese and the grilled corn with chipolte mayo and cotija cheese.   In the second round, we must have tried at least one of each taco, which included different varieties of pork, beef, chicken, chorizo, mushrooms and poblanos.  However, La Lucha really knocks it out in the third round with dessert - we indulged in the 3 leches cake, fried plantains with sweet cream and the fried flour tortilla with anise seeds, cinnamon, sugar and honey.

A taqueria is the traditional place to go in Mexico to gather and prepare before heading to an arena to watch the Lucha Libre - and in New York it is just the right place to gather and prepare among friends for a night spent celebrating a birthday.

La Lucha
147 Avenue A, between 9th and 10th Streets (map)
Hours:
Mon-Thu and Sun: 12pm-11pm
Fri-Sat: 12pm-1am