Chinatown Residents Run Burrito Pop-Up From Their Fire Escape

CHINATOWN, NY — Here's a new way to lift your appetite: Scallion Pancake Burritos — Thai, Dominican, Chinese and California-style — lowered to you in a bucket. It's the brainchild of two Chinatown residents who are running a pop-up every weekend from their third-floor apartment.

Forsyth Fire Escape by Isabel Lee and Luis Fernandez is celebrating its 100th burrito order made on Wednesday. The couple has already sold burritos to people from across the city and one extreme foodie who reportedly drove from Connecticut after hearing about the burritos from a friend.

Lee, 28, works in management consultant and oversees the entire operation. Originally from Palos Verdes, California, Lee grew up cooking meals with her mother — sometimes all day during family gatherings.

Along the way, she picked up recipes passed down through generations and, naturally, from her partner's Dominican family.

Fernandez, 29, hailing from Amherst, Massachusetts (by way of the Dominican Republic and, prior to that, Florida), works front-of-house as the host and greets customers on the ground. It's a natural role for the artist, fashion designer and musician who describes himself as a "jack-of-all-trades."

The couple share Chinese, Thai and Dominican roots that have visible influences in their passion projects, one of which was Watch Us Cook, a social media channel promoting recipes that pay homage to their identities.

"The emphasis is on 'easy-ish healthy-ish' recipes from our cultures," said Lee. "I think there are a lot of alternative recipes for American food, but I didn't necessarily see easy healthy-ish alternatives for Asian food. I wanted to make something that was more accessible, something that was easy for people to make, but still true to the taste."

Cooking was again something to fall back on—this time to beat the hometown blues—after the couple left Los Angeles for New York City last December.

"When we first moved here, I was missing home," said Lee, who is Chinese and Thai. "So I was making a lot of scallion pancakes.

"He's there eating his pernil," continued Lee, referring to Fernandez, who is Dominican. "And we're just like, 'Why don't we combine them?'"

Lee took over the kitchen and began mixing and matching flavors around April. The idea to use a bucket to lower food from the couple's fire escape came from a more distant influence.

"I had seen other Instagram bakeries pop up — people just selling things off of their page locally," Lee said. "For the fire escape, a long time ago I had read about some small town in Italy that lowered down drinks for apéritifs. And so we have a fire escape here. Why don't we do that? That's how the idea started."

While it's not illegal to sit or stand on fire escapes in New York City, there have long been heated debates about how structurally sound enough they are to do so. So far, Lee said she's felt very safe on her fire escape — which she described as well-kept and very sturdy — when she climbs out to lower burritos to customers on the ground.

"We're on the cautious side," Fernandez said. "If I felt any sense of hesitation, then there's no way."

New York Magazine reported in 2018 that incidents of fire escapes breaking are few and far between. It is also required that property owners ensure their buildings are safe.

So now let's talk food — what are the burritos made with?

The burritos, which cost $14, are wrapped with scallion pancakes, (traditional Chinese-style pancake that is crunchy, chewy and flaky) and stuffed with pernil (slow-roasted pork), fried queso blanco (Dominican cheese), guacamole, cilantro and lemongrass chili crisp oil (made with ingredients such as limes, garlic, Gochujang chili flakes and coconut sugar).

An extra side order of the oil costs $1.

"I wanted to make it a little bit different from like your traditional Sichuan chili oil," said Lee. "So I added lemon grass, fish sauce, limes. Just to make it a bit more sweet, bright, citrusy. Together it was amazing."

The lemon grass chili crisp oil can also be purchased separately in a jar for $12.

For those who have food allergies, Forsyth Fire Escape uses sesame oil, peanut oil and fish sauce in their burritos. Accommodations can be made for people with allergies.

As a way to support local Chinatown businesses and give back to her community, Lee intentionally purchases many of the ingredients from various local shops and street vendors, especially along Canal Street.

"I focused on Chinatown because I had read about business not being great, especially in the past year, with how much business has dropped, shops have closed and the hate crimes," said Lee. "It's just so important to make sure this burrito comes from ingredients from people in the community."

Here's how to order burritos from Forsyth Fire Escape:

• Reservations open every Monday at noon.
• Message Forsyth Fire Escape on Instagram to reserve your spot.
  • 30-minute time slots every Friday through Sunday from 11 a.m. to 3 p.m.
• Message Forsyth Fire Escape 20 minutes before arrival.
• Your order is lowered down from the fire escape.

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