Birria has certainly been having a moment in recent years. Originating in Jalisco, Mexico as a stew commonly made from goat or lamb, the dish has exploded in popularity in a taco form out of Los Angeles-via-Tijuana.
Hazel Park’s Frame is getting in on the action with the help of restaurateur Eddie Vargas, who comes with plenty of birria bona fides. Vargas’s grandparents hail from Jalisco, and his family immigrated to L.A. and finally Detroit, where they served birria out of a taco stand in a Southwest Detroit park.
Vargas says while his father used to make birria with lamb, he prefers beef. “What’s special about this recipe is that it’s been passed on for generations,” he says. “This recipe was created with the knowledge from my grandparents passed on to my father, who uses a few different ingredients that others don’t use. And there’s a lot of love in it.”
The Frame menu includes a birria platter, a quesa-birria, a torta, and sopes, a street food made from cup-like corn flour. The pop-up starts on Wednesday and runs through Cinco de Mayo.
