Overview
At 156 Clarence Street in the CBD, you'll find a cluster of award-winning hospitality venues: Baxter Inn, Duke of Clarence and the Barber Shop. Come next week, another — slightly different — venue will be joining them: the second outpost of Manly's Chica Bonita.
Co-owner Luke Miller, who owns Chica and Sunset Sabi with friend and business partner Sean Miller, recognises that his new restaurant has great company. And with great company, comes great expectations. "We need to bring our A-game when we have such great neighbours," Luke says.
Opening in the old Atelier de Velo space, the 90-seat restaurant — designed by Adelaide architects Studio Gram — will be filled with booths, banquettes and smaller tables, all in earthy tones. The airy, well-lit space will also have an open kitchen with half a dozen seats at the counter, where guests will be able to watch the chefs at work.
Chica Bonita CBD by Ashleigh Larden.
Leading those chefs will be another Adelaide import: chef Alejandro Huerta. While he's most recently been working in the southern state, Huerta has previously worked at some of the world's best restaurants — including Pujol in Mexico City and Spain's El Bulli.
Some Manly favourites will carry over to the CBD menu — including its fish tacos, California burrito and carne asada-topped fries — but, overall, it will be slightly more refined, with a focus on fresh seafood and an in-house al pastor (spit-grilled meat similar to a shawarma). A menu has not yet been finalised, but Huerta says to expect dishes like duck carnitas with sour cherries and beef ribs cooked for 48 hours in mole de olla and served with warrigal greens.
As with most Mexican restaurants, agave will be central to the drinks list. On it, you'll find a lengthy lineup of margaritas and other tequila-heavy cocktails, as well as list of mezcals. It's not a long list, but it has depth. Luke and Sean spent time travelling around Mexico meeting distillers and their families, particularly in Santiago Matatlan, in Oaxaca, which is known as the 'World Capital of Mezcal'.
If you'd like to drink your way through a larger (very large, in fact) variety of the smoky spirit, head around the corner to Cantina OK!. It's a just-opened, standing-room-only mezcal bar by the Tio's team — located in a space the Miller boys originally had their eyes on.
Find Chica Bonita at 156 Clarence Street, Sydney from Wednesday, April 3. It's open from Monday–Friday 11.30am–late and Saturday 4.30pm–late.
Images: Ashleigh Larden.