The next time you think about cooking your tacos with some Goya Sazón, perhaps reconsider and grab some “Oaxacan Sea Salt Taco Rub” ($18.) The fancy spice mix is just one of many new additions to longtime corner store Jesse’s Deli in Boerum Hill, which after years of serving traditional old deli sandwiches to an appreciative neighborhood has gone deep into Brooklyn food trends. So now, the shop sells “Burr Ground Funnel Dripped Espresso Shots” ($5), “Hand-Fried Chicken Cutlet Sandwiches” ($13.50), and even a “Slow Roasted Five Hour Energy” ($15.)
The catch: Nothing’s actually changed besides the prices and names, advertised on colorful posters plastered to the windows, in a kind of brilliant performance piece protest against neighborhood gentrification (and a 250 percent rent hike for the deli). Who knows: If those chicken sandwiches catch on, they might give David Chang’s Fuku a new, unexpected competitor.
