Photograph courtesy of Tio Lucho
For the past yr, chef Arnaldo Castillo (beforehand of Minero) has been sharing his Peruvian roots by means of a pop-up dubbed La Chingana. Now, he’s giving his cuisine a permanent household with the opening of Tio Lucho’s, a coastal Peruvian cafe, in the former CO place in Poncey-Highland. Slated to start in June, Tio Lucho’s is the brainchild of Castillo and Sweet Auburn Barbecue’s Howard Hsu. It’s an ode to Castillo’s heritage with dishes impressed by his upbringing and a identify that pays homage to his father, Luis. (Lucho is a nickname for Luis.)
“My father was a significant inspiration for me acquiring into food stuff,” Castillo suggests. “I’d accomplished events with Howard [Hsu] in the earlier and got to take a look at dishes via La Chingana. I want to use seasonal elements, local meat, and regional seafood to highlight Peruvian dishes.”
Photograph courtesy of Tio Lucho
Tio Lucho’s will serve sharable merchandise that replicate Peru’s diverse historical past, bringing in indigenous, Japanese, Chinese, and Criollo flavors. The menu will be weighty on seafood. Choices could contain ceviche, crudo, and jalea (fried seafood), as nicely as more substantial objects like a total cowboy ribeye with plantain fries and quail egg (a perform on bistec a lo pobre), and grilled snapper with an escabeche-like preparation.
“I’m thrilled to carry Peruvian foods to the masses,” Castillo states.
Dillon Slay of Kimball Home will direct the bar application, generating Latin-inspired cocktails like pisco sours, caipirinhas, frozen margaritas, and chilcanos (similar to Moscow Mules with ginger ale). Wines will stem from Chile and Argentina, as effectively as Spain and Portugal. Beer choices involve Michelada, Tecate, Modelo, and decide on community brews.
Photograph courtesy of Tio Lucho
The 3,000-sq.-foot house will replicate the greenery of everyday living in Lima and Piura (in which Castillo grew up) with crops hanging from the ceiling and use of warm woods and metals. A cement partition is intended to elicit of emotions of a Latin seashore house. The 12-seat bar capabilities teal tile on the bottom for a “fish scale look,” Castillo says. There’s also a 50-seat patio, which Hsu and Castillo are looking at connecting to the eating room with garage-fashion doors.
Once Tio Lucho’s is up and functioning, Hsu will change his focus to McDonough, where he’s opening a Sweet Auburn Barbecue spot in August or September.