“ i had a case of mean reds that evening, a condition described by holiday golightly as being afraid of something but you don't know what, like tiptoeing past the graveyard on a moonless night hearing footsteps that aren't yours. i always get this a few days after filing tax returns, maybe that was it this time too but there was something else here, something more sinister. at such times I'm not fit to be in company with more normal people so I prefer to work things out alone. what i needed was somehow to approximate getting out of town. there are of course chemical fogs, diazepines, tranqs and the like but instead i drove around aimlessly for an hour or so trying to figure what else might help. i'm not like this no more, but there was a time when "what" would have been a bar, at the worst of those times it would have been on the street level beneath one of the old bowery "residence hotels" where the better-heeled patrons could sleep inside for a night. the prince hotel was my default, the bar not the hotel of course because my loft was just across the street. at such hours in those places you could always hear the story of someone much worse off, for the admission price of a shotglass of some terrible distillate and a short beer on the side. problem being that sooner or later the reds were gone for the night but your new friend's story was just getting started and would keep going on and on and on, when it was actually time for you to start sleeping off the remedy. in my current situation today, i just wanted to leave town, by the back door so to speak, which wasn't possible at the moment. so why does mexican food come to mind at times like this? there was a time when mexico seemed to be the end of the road for a getaway, the place to go, way down south to escape the hangman's rope, and i have known scurrilous individuals who have done that exact thing. but of course that wouldn't be the thing to do today, not at all, except for the very scurrilous indeed. i'm now just looking for a place to be i've never been and sure enough i came upon this mi familia tacqueria, likely there for a decade or more but just enough out of the way so one has to be looking to see it. somehow i knew immediately it would be good. by now i can almost smell a good mexican restaurant by looking at it (?). maybe it was just the "familia" thing or those blinking christmas lights in the window, i'm always a sucker for both. take my advice kids and don't leave your nest before it's time, you can't go home again, they won't let you. of course you're only reading this because you want to know about the food, right? ok. i think it's one of the better tacquerias in the county, certainly above average with nothing unusual on the menu, but everything seems well prepared and i'd give it another visit. i had my standard beef enchilada plate, which seemed good but nothing special. The sauce had an extra dose of achiote so it was vibrantly red, which i didn't care for but it doesn't matter to flavor so get over it. i liked the refries though some have described them as seemingly from a can. i didn't find that. the fresh salsas included, this night anyway, my favorite roasted red chile though it lacked megatonnage heat. pricing is about average. next time i'd go carne asada. a couple of bottles of bohemia later and i was done, mean reds gone, their disposition a pale shadow of what would have been required a few decades ago. but if this is how grownups live i think i like it the other way. indeed, who knows where the time goes? ”