Our business affairs carried us to the far north last week to the great state of Kentucky. Whilst planning for the drive we created a list of restaurants that could provide sustenance along the route. We came of age in Alabama so we charted a multitude of restaurants, diners and barbecue joints that we could possibly seek refuge in when the rigors of the road grew too great.

Tennessee received the same treatment as did Kentucky.

One name that kept popping up in our studies was Birrieria Jalisco, a tiny Lexington cafe devoted to the preparation of goat. After 12 hours travel time we were chuffed to pull into the parking lot, take the lay of the land and make our way inside to the brightly lighted, familial space.

Alicia hailed us as though we were long lost primos and immediately walked us through the process of how to procure food from the tiny, open kitchen.

Birrieria Jalisco is owned and operated by Alicia’s big sister Araceli who began cooking at the tender age of 14. She’s never worked in a professional kitchen but has extensively woodshedded under female relatives since she was a teen.

We order a brace of goat barbacoa tacos on corn tortillas along with an appetizer of totopos with salsa and are summarily informed that the app will take a few minutes as the chips are fried per order. .

This method is a rare creature and must be treated with the utmost reverence as most cooks are lazy fuckers and just grab chips out of a plastic bag instead of making them from scratch.

15 minutes pass and a smiling, chatty Alicia descends on our table with tacos, hot tortilla chips and a pronouncement that the salsa bar is ready for the taking. Further, she walks us through the three sauces explaining the heat levels and flavor profiles of each one.

While all three are fine a special note must be made of the brick red one that tastes of smoke, fire and burnt chiles. It is profoundly delicious.

The goat meat is a buttery luxury. It’s cooked beyond reason to a perfect turn. The young creature’s life has not been taken in vain but instead has been deeply honored by the cook. The corn tortillas are billowing with smoke, hot off the comal and freshly pressed moments before arriving at table.

They are as fine as any we’ve had on dozens of trips through Mexico.

We cannot remember the last time we got this much pleasure from Mexican food.

Birrieria Jalisco

3330 Partner Place

Lexington, Kentucky

40503

Hours of operation

Sunday 10am-4pm

Monday 11am-8pm

Tuesday 11am-8pm

Wednesday 11am-8pm

Thursday 11am-8pm

Friday 11am-8pm

Saturday 11am-8pm