Chef
Dave Rizo
- Discipline
- Chef
- Based in
- New York City, New York, United States
i. Biography
Dave Rizo is the chef-owner of a New York City restaurant built around the working forms of South Texas cooking: flour tortillas, chili gravy, smoked food, breakfast tacos, and bean-and-cheese tacos. Before the restaurant had a permanent address, the cooking was tested in taco pop-ups, where the format required speed, clarity, and a strong point of view. In November 2020, the project became a brick-and-mortar New York City restaurant, carrying that pop-up grammar into a fixed service model without losing the directness of the food.
Training and Lineage
Pop-up cooking is a practical test of identity: limited space, limited time, and no room for weak ideas. Early in Dave Rizo’s career, he worked as an employee at Superiority Burger, close to the pace and precision of a respected New York kitchen, while also developing the project as taco pop-up chef at Yellow Rose pop-up at Superiority Burger (2020–2020). The format suited food that could make its argument quickly: tortilla, filling, heat, sauce, and balance. South Texas cooking here is built from repeatable craft rather than decoration. Flour tortillas serve as the base; beans and cheese are handled as a serious center; smoke and gravy function as structure. As chef-owner of Yellow Rose (since 2020), Dave Rizo carries the pop-up’s compact language into a fuller restaurant form.
The Work Today
“The only thing we heighten, in terms of traditional South Texas food, like the breakfast tacos and the chicken fried steak, is the sourcing.” That position keeps the work close to its source. The restaurant does not treat South Texas cooking as material for reinvention; it treats it as a set of forms that reward close execution. The bean and cheese taco is its signature San Antonio taco: creamy, rich beans folded into a flour tortilla, vegetarian by composition and dependent on texture, seasoning, and restraint. The Impossible Chorizo Breakfast Taco brings a plant-based filling into the breakfast-taco form, made with Impossible Chorizo seasoned with cayenne, scrambled eggs, salsa, and a flour tortilla. It belongs to the same vocabulary as the rest of the menu: a morning taco built on filling, egg, salsa, and tortilla rather than novelty. Chicken-Fried Steak, featured by StarChefs, is built from NY strip with masa gravy, chile oil, parsley, rosemary, and mashed potatoes. The plate works through contrast: crispness, richness, heat, herbs, and potatoes arranged around a comfort-food form. The Taco Trio shows the range of the tortilla format through three preparations: carne guisada with beef and dried chile gravy; papas ranchero with fried potatoes and ranchero salsa; and barbacoa with beef cheek, cilantro, avocado, spring onions, and Cotija. The lesson is range through specificity, not excess.
Recognition
The achievement is direct: Rizo turned Yellow Rose from taco pop-ups into a New York City restaurant with a defined South Texas point of view. The recognition sits in the clarity of the work — a San Antonio chef-owner serving scratch-made food that treats flour tortillas, chili gravy, smoked food, and bean-and-cheese tacos as craft forms. In a city crowded with concepts, Yellow Rose proves how much identity a simple form can carry when the making is specific.
Profile updated July 2026
FAQ
Asked of Dave
What does Dave Rizo do now?
Dave Rizo is chef at Yellow Rose — Mexican.
Where did Dave Rizo work before?
Earlier in their career, Dave Rizo worked at Superiority Burger and Yellow Rose pop-up at Superiority Burger.
What is Dave Rizo known for?
South Texas cooking, including breakfast tacos, carne guisada, fresh flour tortillas, stewed beef in chili gravy, and bean-and-cheese tacos.
