Mercado Brings a Slice of Barcelona to Sydney's CBD
The newest venture from rising chef Nathan Sasi focuses on house-made smallgoods.
Mercado takes homemade to a new level, a brand new Spanish-inspired restaurant that's opened in Sydney's CBD this week. It's the newest addition to the Ash Street laneway in Angel Place, right beside newcomer Indu. The 'everything from scratch' mentality is no surprise from head chef Nathan Sasi (ex-Nomad), who just opened Potts Point's Good Times Ice Cream with the same motto earlier this year.
Inspired by Barcelona's La Boqueria market, Mercado is focused around preserved and smoked smallgoods — think rows upon rows of cured meats, photos of which have been acting as mouthwatering teasers on the Mercado Instagram for weeks.
"We're trying to implement the hustle and bustle visual aspect of these markets at our restaurant," says Sasi. "When you go to these markets you see meat hanging on stands, cheese everywhere, so we're trying to do the same thing with our restaurant and menu," he adds.
To name a few, Mercado is making breads, preserves and cured and smoked meats all in house, along with condiments like house-made 'everything' vinegar and salt cod lemon mayonnaise. They're even wheeling around a cheese trolley of both homemade and imported varieties.
The house-made aspect is something Sasi has been focused on as a chef for quite some time. "We're not trying to be arrogant, we just want to have a point of difference and be able to customise the ingredients we use at the restaurant", says Sasi. "At Mercado, we have control over every product in our recipes," he adds.
The custom-made rotisserie is the star of the Moorish-inspired menu and is serving up whole cooked meat over charcoal and wood fire, including spit roast whole suckling pig and lamb ($50 each). "We work with a lot of small farms to source top quality produce and cook the meat for at least eight hours," says Sasi. That's some serious, succulent meat love right there.
If you can pry your eyes away from the rotisserie menu, the share plates are decadent to say the least — think foie gras parfait ($29), truffle mortadella ($19) and smoked wagyu tongue on brioche ($14).
Mercado is tucked away down the Ash Street laneway. Located a block behind the George Street chaos via Angel Place, this little district is becoming more of a foodie haven by the day. The construction on the heritage building may have delayed Sasi's planned 2015 opening, but it seems 2016 is proving to be a lucky year for the rising chef.
Mercado is located at 4 Ash Street, Sydney. Open Monday to Friday (lunch from noon to 3pm, dinner from 5.30pm to 10pm), and Friday to Saturday from 5.30pm to 11pm.
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