Owners Krystiana and Dave Rizo have expanded their popular East Village Tex-Mex restaurant, Yellow Rose, to Brooklyn. Yellow Rose Cafe and Bar opened on June 20 at 524 Lorimer Street in Williamsburg, trading the Manhattan flagship’s reservation-only format for a walk-in, counter-service cafe serving breakfast tacos, pastries, coffee, and cocktails from morning through night.
The new eatery replaced the couple’s previous Southern restaurant, Rose Marie, which occupied the same space for less than a year. When it was clear they would have to pivot concepts, the Rizos spent time assessing what the neighborhood needed. “We thought, ‘we should just turn it into another Yellow Rose that does breakfast tacos all day and pastries and fun coffee drinks.’” Krystiana Rizo says. “We thought that’s what this neighborhood would really want, and it turns out we were right.”
One week after closing Rose Marie in June, the Rizos reopened the space as a Yellow Rose Cafe, giving the brand its first Brooklyn outpost. Leaning into the expansion, rather than trying to carve out a second, different identity, ending up being a relief. “Every time we would try and do something with Rose Marie, we’d be like, ‘That’s too much like Yellow Rose,'” Rizo says. “Now we’ve just been having fun again—it just feels more like us.”
That same doubling down on brand extends into the space itself. Much of the decor comes from the Rizos’ own apartment and from a trip through the Lone Star State. “We went to Texas for a month and went antiquing and got a bunch of light fixtures and different things and sent them back over here,” Rizo says. Yellow Rose’s signature orange service trays also made the move to Brooklyn.
Built for Brooklyn
The San Antonio natives launched the original Yellow Rose in 2020 after moving to New York and realizing they couldn’t find the South Texas breakfast tacos they grew up eating. What began as a Brooklyn pop-up quickly grew into a permanent East Village restaurant known for its handmade flour tortillas and menu of “genuine cosmic Texas cookin’”.
While the original spot is tailored to the East Village, the Brooklyn location was built around Williamsburg’s daily rhythm. “One of the biggest changes I’ve noticed over the last 10 years is that it’s really become more of a daytime neighborhood,” Rizo says. “There’s a lot of coffee shops, a lot of breakfast options around here.”
That shift informed nearly every part of the new restaurant, from the counter-service model to the expanded bakery and coffee program. A new pastry chef prepares the baked goods in-house every morning.
The bakery menu includes conchas (traditional Mexican sweet bread), sweet and savory kolaches, buttermilk donuts, banana bread, and the Cowboy Cookie, made with Fritos, peanuts, and chocolate chips. Coffee drinks range from horchata cold brew and shaken orange cream cold brew to shaken maple pecan cold brew.
Breakfast tacos remain the centerpiece, served on flour tortillas rolled to order with fillings like migas, carne guisada, potato and chorizo, and bacon and egg. The beverage menu includes frozen margaritas, micheladas, ranch waters, Mexican Coke, and Bloody Marys.
A Place to Hang
The all-day concept extends to the atmosphere. Guests stop in with laptops over coffee before the space transitions into a neighborhood bar in the evening. A record player spins in the background. Criterion Collection films play on the television.
“For me, it’s about the vibe,” Rizo says. “This is a place that I want to be at all day. That’s what I really wanted to bring to this neighborhood.”
Within days of opening, she knew the concept was working. Customers had already begun returning. “We’ve had people come in every single day,” Rizo says. “There was a guy that was here when we closed, and he came in this morning at 8:30—that’s a good day to me.”
Yellow Rose Cafe & Bar
524 Lorimer St. Brooklyn, NY 11211
(347) 223-4594
Sunday – Thursday 8am – 10pm
