Changes are coming to one of Jersey City’s best-loved spots for late-night food. La Brujeria, located at 590 Grand Street, will close its downtown location in January and move to a new space in Jersey City, just a half-mile away. The Hoboken Girl has exclusive details on what’s next for this Mexican take-out spot. Read on for what we know about La Brujeria’s next steps in Jersey City.
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About La Brujeria
La Brujeria is located at 590 Grand Street in Jersey City. It opened in December 2020, is take-out or delivery only, and is open 24 hours a day. The menu features authentic Mexican food including birria, barbacoa, pozole, pipian verde, tacos de chicharron, lengua (tongue), and cochinita pibil.
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Owner Roberto Islas is a long-time Jersey City resident and a veteran of the dining scene. He picked the space because of its setup, having observed restaurants pivoting away from their dine-in models during the pandemic. Roberto found a space with a big kitchen, but a small dining room. “I saw what’s been happening here with restaurants closing due to high rents and dining restrictions, so I found a small space that allows us to focus on takeout and deliveries,” Roberto told HG in a 2020 interview.
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Because of its incredible food and 24-hour operations, La Brujeria is one of Jersey City’s tried and true spots. The exterior is decorated with an enormous, Dia De Los Muertos-style mural. In Mexican language and culture, “brujeria” is a word often used when talking about what makes something special. Roberto explains that when someone says, “this is so good, what did you put in it?”, oftentimes the answer from a Mexican chef might be “le heche brujeria,” meaning “I added witchcraft.”
Since all of the staff are Mexican, adding their regional influences to the menu, the brujeria is found throughout the menu. Roberto and Chef Santos Xochiua worked collaboratively to create an authentic menu, staying true to real, original Mexican flavors that they feel a lot of places in the area don’t always do.
What We Know
A source at the restaurant told us that the new location will be at 200 Summit Avenue, a half-mile away from its current location. The building’s owner did not renew the restaurant’s lease. The source tells HG that the new space will open with all of the same staff and menu on the same day that the Grand Street location closes, sometime in January. “The changeover will take one day,” the source said.
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The source said that the owner of La Brujeria acquired the Summit Avenue space a while ago and originally wanted to open it as a burger joint. But, now the space will have both the original La Brujeria menu and burgers. The space will also have indoor seating. According to a prior listing for the space on Loopnet, the building was built in 1904 and the restaurant space is over 4,000 square feet — plenty of room for seating.
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The space is the former home to Paparazzi Pizzeria, later Paparazzi Italiano, which opened in 2011 and was known for its stone-fired pizza. The restaurant closed in 2022.
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The McGinley Square neighborhood has seen several new restaurants open over the past couple of years. La Brujeria will join Cafe Alyce, Baonanas, ITA Italian, Snapdragon Coffee, The Cottage, Carvao BBQ, and Wing Bar as relatively new additions to the neighborhood.
