Chef Richard Sandoval is planning to open a new modern Mexican restaurant in Houston next year.<\/p>\n
dLe\u00f1a by Chef Richard Sandoval is slated to open in the currently-under-construction Galleria-area hotel, the\u00a0Greenleigh (formerly Hotel Derek), in the spring. This restaurant concept is a first for Sandoval, who has more than 60 restaurants worldwide under his namesake hospitality company; dLena will be his third Houston restaurant, following Toro Toro and Bayou & Bottle, both in the Four Seasons hotel downtown.<\/p>\n
He developed dLena with his son Giancarlo and daughter Isabella, focusing on wood-fire cooking. He and his children experimented with the flavors and aromas created from the smoke of different types of wood in\u00a0Cabo during the pandemic. \u00a0<\/p>\n
\u201cCooking over wood fire, charring ingredients and roasting over an open flame are techniques deeply rooted in Mexican culinary tradition. At dLe\u00f1a, we build on those traditions, using fire to bring out the natural sweetness of vegetables, deepen the flavor of chiles and create char and texture in meats and seafood. Fire touches nearly every part of the menu, but always with purpose. It\u2019s about taking an ancient way of cooking and showing how exciting and relevant it can still be today,\u201d\u00a0Sandoval said in a statement.<\/p>\n
Sandoval was born in Mexico City. His first Mexican restaurant was the first to earn two stars from The New York Times and catapulted\u00a0Sandoval into a career as a well-known chef, author, and philanthropist.<\/p>\n
The menu will include a selection of ceviches,\u00a0like hamachi\u00a0with achiote leche de tigre, grilled pineapple, xni-pec salsa and cilantro\u00a0criollo. For mains, a\u00a0bone marrow and tuna chicharron with guacamole,\u00a0xni-pec salsa, pickled vegetables, charred serrano. Tacos may involve breaded shrimp. There will also be beef dishes like hot stone A5 wagyu. Each dish will deliver some visual theater. Picture tequila-flamed meats tableside and proteins heated on lava stone.\u00a0<\/p>\n
Tequila and mezcal anchor the beverage program with more than 300 spirits,\u00a0creating smoke-forward cocktails and tasting flights.\u00a0<\/p>\n
The restaurant is being designed by Bay Area design firm Wilson\/Ishihara, which has worked with Sandoval on previous restaurants. It can seat 123 indoors and 15 in outdoor lounge seating.\u00a0<\/p>\n
The design pays tribute to Mexican wood fire cooking hearths. It will have pecan and mesquite installations; ancestral art and tribal symbols will be showcased using using dramatic\u00a0uplighting.<\/p>\n
dLena will also participate in Viva Abejas, the hospitality company’s program dedicated to raising awareness about the role of bees in food.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"
Chef Richard Sandoval is planning to open a new modern Mexican restaurant in Houston next year. dLe\u00f1a by Chef Richard Sandoval is slated to open in the currently-under-construction Galleria-area hotel, the\u00a0Greenleigh (formerly Hotel Derek), in the spring. This restaurant concept is a first for Sandoval, who has more than 60 restaurants worldwide under his namesake<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":13851,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[2],"tags":[5],"class_list":["post-13850","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-chefs","tag-chef"],"share_on_mastodon":{"url":"https:\/\/vive.im\/@dnc\/117593549279219831","error":""},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.diningandcooking.com\/chefs\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/13850","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.diningandcooking.com\/chefs\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.diningandcooking.com\/chefs\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.diningandcooking.com\/chefs\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.diningandcooking.com\/chefs\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=13850"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.diningandcooking.com\/chefs\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/13850\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.diningandcooking.com\/chefs\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/13851"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.diningandcooking.com\/chefs\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=13850"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.diningandcooking.com\/chefs\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=13850"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.diningandcooking.com\/chefs\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=13850"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}