This Hilltop pop-up is offering some of the best Mexican street food in Columbus
Most Sundays, Stephanie and Felicia Arcio-Williams go to church.
You won’t find any hymnals or wooden pews at their church, but rather folding chairs and tables and a makeshift outdoor kitchen serving authentic chilaquiles, tacos, empanadas and sopes.
This is Casa Karmelitas, a pop-up serving Chilango street food outside Lookout Supply, an art supplies store on the Hilltop. (Chilango is Mexican slang for people from Mexico City.)
“We call it church, because we go to get our spirits right,” Felicia said. “Eating good food with good people.”
The married couple hail from San Diego, where finding good Mexican street food is as easy as finding a good buckeye (the chocolate and peanut butter kind) in Columbus. The first time she ate at Casa Karmelitas, Stephanie nearly cried.
“I was like, 'Oh, we can stay here because this exists here,'" she said.
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The leader of this “church” is Karma Masri, 31, a veteran of the restaurant industry who has worked at Due Amici, Westies Gastropub and Gordon Biersch. She’s currently a server at South Village Grille.
Masri grew up in Mexico City, where her family owned hotels. She began working in restaurants at 15. Masri’s parents are divorced, so growing up, she split time between Mexico and Dubai.
“I come from two very different cultural backgrounds, both very heavy on food,” said Masri, whose mother is Mexican and father is Palestinian.
In Mexico, she and her grandfather made it a tradition to explore the different street food vendors in the city and surrounding areas. In Dubai, her father cooked Arabic food. Although Masri had an interest in cooking from a young age, she said home-cooked Mexican food wasn’t a huge part of her life growing up. But she began to explore it more when she got pregnant right before the pandemic.
She and her longtime friend Angelica Ruiz began recreating dishes they remembered eating growing up in Mexico.
“I really tried to reconnect with my Mexican roots, by learning all of the ingredients, the flavors, the cooking processes, and developed a natural love for it,” Masri said.
After sharing their food with friends, families and coworkers, Masri and Ruiz officially launched Casa Karmelitas in July 2022, and set up shop at Lookout Supply. (Masri’s husband, Justin Withrow, owns the store.) One of Casa Karmelitas' early supporters was Bert Chavez.
Chavez is the bar manager at Chapman’s Eat Market in German Village. He quickly introduced his colleagues to Casa Karmelitas, including Stephanie, who is a server at Chapman’s, and Felicia, who is an assistant manager at Ginger Rabbit Jazz Lounge, Chapman’s sister location.
“It’s just done well. It’s not trying to be anything fancy. It’s just a good taco,” said Chavez. His go-to order is the potato and chorizo taco and the chicken adobo taco with macha salsa and red onions.
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Chavez wanted to be a part of Casa Karmelitas as soon as he discovered it. Last November, he got his chance when he began serving micheladas at the pop-up. The traditional Mexican cocktail is made with beer, spices, lime juice, and clamato or tomato juice. Chavez’s business is called Xolo Michelada Mixes, and he usually joins Casa Karmelitas for a monthly pop-up. The two small businesses have also collaborated for pop-ups at Seventh Son Brewing Co.
Chavez said he felt like “a man without a country” when he moved to Ohio, and he struggled to find his Latin community. But with Casa Karmelitas, he found it.
It’s a sentiment echoed by Felicia. “It's important to me to have something community-centered that's a space that's welcoming for whatever people are making,” she said.
For Masri, hearing how much this food and community mean to people is what she lives for. “You can have a really crappy day, and you can eat something so good, and it really changes your whole mood,” she said. “I want to provide that for people.
"I want to provide some comfort. I want to provide a home.”
Find Casa Karmelitas every Sunday from noon to 4 p.m. at 3440 W. Broad St. Visit them online at instagram.com/casakarmelitas
This article originally appeared on The Columbus Dispatch: Casa Karmelitas building a reputation for tasty authentic Mexican food
