The Mexican Seafood Star of Queens Is Opening in Brooklyn

The city’s best place for Mexican seafood is expanding.

Known for its aguachiles and shrimp cocktails, Mariscos El Submarino, opened in Jackson Heights in 2020: Now owners Alonso Guzman and Amy Hernandez are opening a second location in Greenpoint, according to Guzman. The restaurant will replace Mystica, which Guzman opened last year at 222 Franklin Street, near Green Street. It closed this spring.

When the first Mariscos El Submarino opened, almost instantly, the restaurant became the best place in town for Sinaloa-style raw seafood. Several spots with a similar focus have come along since then, but none do it as well: In his ranking of the city’s best restaurants, Pete Wells of the New York Times called the restaurant’s aguachile negro “a cult object.”

The second Submarino is already open for dinner with a limited menu on weekends, Friday to Sunday, from 5 to 10 p.m., while renovations are underway. Starting on June 1, it will have the same menu, prices, and design as the original restaurant, along with expanded hours, noon to 11 p.m. daily.

Unfortunately, that spells the end for Mystica, which opened last year as Mitica. (Guzman was forced to change the spelling after receiving a legal threat from Forever Cheese, which owns a trademarked snack brand with the same name.) The restaurant was more buttoned-up than Mariscos El Submarino, with a menu of carefully plated dishes, like pork shank with mashed potatoes and duck breast risotto.

And in the end, people may have just wanted another location of Mariscos El Submarino. “We were losing a lot of money,” Guzman says, “but I’m glad we tried something different.”