The holy/sexy stuff inside this Styrofoam ramekin is called consommé. It’s made with the juices derived from cooking birria, the trad-Mexican marinated beef stew, which is then spiked with chiles, onions, cilantro, spicy-sweet annatto paste and maybe some witchcraft.

Consommé is the dipping sauce served on the side with birria tacos, which Celia’s Kitchen in Huntsville, Alabama does oh so well. Their birria tacos — served in double-wrapped corn tortillas with melty cheese and fresh cilantro and diced onion — are succulent.

By itself, consommé isn’t an epiphany. You’re not going to get addicted to it or want to put it on your French fries or shoot it like tequila. But dipping an already rad Celia’s birria taco into consommé elevates the taste and satisfaction to saturation.

I got hip to Celia’s Kitchen from my friend Ricky Garcia, aka local food insider RickyHSV. In late June, Garcia posted an alluring pic of a plate of birria tacos on his social media, captioned only with “4811 university dr.” Yours truly may not be able to split the atom, but I can google an address with the best of ‘em.

Celia’s Kitchen is housed in a black trailer parked at a Texaco just west of a Chick-fil-A and Hooters. It’s on the side opposite that gas station/convenience store’s outdoor ice bin.

Celia’s Kitchen is a business partnership between Celia Vargas and Ramon Sanabria. Vargas and Sanabria had worked together for about 10 years at the Bridge Street Towne Centre location of Cantina Laredo, the Texas-founded upscale Mexican restaurant chain that closed in Huntsville around March 2020 amid the pandemic.

At Cantina Laredo, Vargas and Sanabria made a connection. She was a bartender and he was a chef. When she had a spare moment, she’d go back to the kitchen and pick up cooking tricks from him.

After Cantina Laredo, Vargas, who is married Ashish Silwal, a manager at the Huntsville location of regional steakhouse chain Char, focused on raising her newborn. Sanabria found work with other local Mexican-food ventures.

Recently, the owner of Taqueria Don Panchito, which parked at the same Texaco, reached out to Vargas. “He said, ‘I’m selling my taco truck. Do you want it?’” she recalls. “And I was like, I might as well, because I always want to do something with food.”

Vargas brought in her old friend Sanabria. “We always had a really good friendship,” she says. “He works the way I like to work, and I think he likes how I work.” They were brainstorming business names, and Silwal suggested they call it Celia’s Kitchen because it evoked a welcoming, mom’s-kitchen kind of vibe.

In mid-May, with a new name and logo slapped on the side of the trailer, Celia’s Kitchen debuted. At first it was just Vargas and Sanabria working. Business was hot from the drop. A combination of the location being previously established, Vargas and Sanabria’s decade of Cantina Laredo connections, and the tasty and value-driven food Celia’s was serving.

Soon, they were busy enough to hire an employee. Then a second employee. They hope to soon give the trailer a new paint job but “it’s been too busy” so far, Vargas says.

Celia’s Kitchen is within echoes of Orion Amphitheater, which has attracted music fans from Huntsville and well beyond since opening 2022 and booking legends like Stevie Nicks, Phish and Robert Plant. Visiting fans staying in nearby University Drive hotels for Orion shows soon found Celia’s, looking for pre-concert fuel or next-day recovery.

Vargas and Sanabria separately immigrated to the U.S. about 25 years ago. He’s from Mexico City and she’s from Vera Cruz. When they’re not working inside their black trailer sweatbox, Sanabria likes to watch soccer matches on TV. Vargas like to bar-hop with her husband, Silwal. The nearby location of Twin Peaks for some ice-cold Modelos is the couple’s go-to.

At Celia’s Kitchen, Vargas handles the trailer’s window. There’s something inherently cool about becoming a customer at a joint early enough the namesake’s taking your order.

Vargas does more than that though. She makes the salsas (salsa verde, zingy; chile de arbol, kicking), beans and jasmine rice from scratch for Celia’s Kitchen too. Vargas and Sanabria prep their food at Sparkman Drive’s Chop & Roll Commissary. They get their tortillas from a local business that makes them.

Celia’s Kitchen’s menu tops out at a non-overwhelming 12 items. Besides the street tacos — stuffed with choice of birria, chicken, steak or pastor (marinated pork) — other go-tos include the Tortas Cubana — a super sandwich with bird, pig, avocado, eggs, tomatoes, the works — and mulitas – a quesadilla-like crushable on corn tortilla chassis.

In addition to the birria tacos, during my recent visit to Celia’s I got into the pastor and chicken. Authentic flavors and gold-medal execution at fast-food prices. Celia’s Kitchen serves their tacos with slices of cucumber, a refreshing natural side on a hot Alabama day. Huntsville is home to several solid taco trucks. In my opinion, Celia’s is upper echelon.

Vargas is a natural at interfacing with the public. Pleasant, pretty, pro and collected. “Working in a restaurant is hard but if you like to do it, you’re going to do it,” she says. “I’ve always loved talking with people and I know a lot of people.” From her Cantina Laredo days, she also knows how to make a righteous margarita, so she’d be stoked if Celia’s Kitchen evolved into a full-on restaurant. “I think everybody in Huntsville misses the Cantina Laredo margaritas,” she says.

Celia’s Kitchen’s hours of operation and more info can be found at facebook.com/Celiaskitchenhsv.

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