Restaurants

A Michelin-recommended Fort Worth taqueria is opening another restaurant

The Michelin-recommended Birrieria Y Taqueria Cortez, known for its birria quesatacos, is launching another restaurant.

“As y’all may know, the Cortez family, we know how to cook,” said Alejandro Soto as he pointed to their Michelin honors in an Instagram announcement post on Wednesday, April 15. “And I’m here to tell you right now we are opening a new sister restaurant, right across the street.”

Quesatacos and consomé, bottom left, flautas, top left, and the birria pizza, right, are plated for the sampler platter at Birrieria y Taqueria Cortez in Fort Worth on Wednesday, Nov. 20, 2024. The restaurant earned a Michelin Recommended rating, landing the taqueria on a prestigious list of eateries around the nation.
Quesatacos and consomé, bottom left, flautas, top left, and the birria pizza, right, are plated for the sampler platter at Birrieria y Taqueria Cortez in Fort Worth on Wednesday, Nov. 20, 2024. The restaurant earned a Michelin Recommended rating, landing the taqueria on a prestigious list of eateries around the nation. Chris Torres ctorres@star-telegram.com

Birrieria Y Taqueria Cortez can be found at 2108 E Rosedale St. The new restaurant, Mariscos Cortez, will be located across Rosedale, off Martin Luther King Jr. Freeway.

Birrieria Y Taqueria Cortez started with $100 and a food truck in 2020. After only a year, they opened their brick and mortar. Then in 2024, the restaurant earned a Michelin recommendation. Only two other Fort Worth eateries were recognized– Panther City BBQ and Goldee’s BBQ.

What makes their restaurant so successful is the consistent quality on the one main menu item: birria.

“I tell everybody good food sells itself. It’s just good food and consistency,” owner Rogelio Cortez Jr. said in a previous Star-Telegram interview.

While the menu is small, it contains variations of the beef birria – quesa-birria taco, birria flautas, birria pizza. The limited options allow Cortez to ensure customers will always enjoy the same quality flavors and recipes.

And he plans to use the same philosophy at Mariscos Cortez.

Cortez Jr.’s mothers birria recipe driven restaurant earned a Michelin Recommended rating, landing the taqueria on a prestigious list of eateries around the nation.
Owner Rogelio Cortez Jr., left, and his mother Patricia are photographed in the main dining room at Birrieria y Taqueria Cortez in Fort Worth on Wednesday, Nov. 20, 2024. The family plans to open a sister seafood concept before the summer of 2026. Chris Torres ctorres@star-telegram.com

What will be on the menu at Mariscos Cortez?

Mariscos Cortez will not sell birria tacos. The new restaurant, from the same family and chefs, will serve exactly what its name means: seafood.

Cortez notes that like Birrieria Y Taqueria Cortez, Mariscos Cortez will have a small menu with a maximum of 10 items, so they can focus on the quality of each dish.

The menu has not yet been released, however, a hint in the Instagram comments revealed that there will be a “tostada de ceviche.”

When will Mariscos Cortez open?

Cortez hopes to open the new seafood concept before summer.

An official opening date has not been announced. However, the best way to check for updates would be through the restaurant’s social media accounts.

Quesatacos and consomé are plated for the sampler platter at Birrieria y Taqueria Cortez in Fort Worth on Wednesday, Nov. 20, 2024.
Quesatacos and consomé are plated for the sampler platter at Birrieria y Taqueria Cortez in Fort Worth on Wednesday, Nov. 20, 2024. Chris Torres ctorres@star-telegram.com

Updates at Birrieria Y Taqueria Cortez

Birrieria Y Taqueria Cortez has added a few birria variations recently – the birria jalapeno poppers and birria ribs.

The birria poppers are jalapenos stuffed with cream cheese and birria and sold with housemade jalapeno ranch. They are only sold on Tuesdays.

Though the restaurant used to be closed on Tuesdays, it is now open for Taco Tuesdays, when they serve $3 margaritas and beer, and kids eat free.

Birrieria Y Taqueria Cortez also launched birria ribs. The rib meat is cooked in birria spices, making it tender to fall off the bone. It is served with tortillas, taco fixin’s and birria consomme.

The restaurant is located at 2108 E Rosedale St. Open Tuesday through Saturday from 9 a.m. to 10 p.m. and Sunday from 9 a.m. to 8 p.m. Closed Monday.

Their original food truck still operates as a drive-thru window at 2220 E. Rosedale St. in Fort Worth.

And the new restaurant, Mariscos Cortez, will be to the left of the Valero gas station off Martin Luther King Jr. Freeway.

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Ella Gonzales
Fort Worth Star-Telegram
Ella Gonzales is a service journalism reporter for the Fort Worth Star-Telegram. She is part of a team of local journalists who answer reader questions and write about life in North Texas. Ella mainly writes about local restaurants and where to find good deals around town.
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