Chef Abraham Nu\u00f1ez\u2019s Chicano Nuevo began as a pop-up serving Ensenada-style Mexican food throughout San Francisco. His brand of fish tacos and tamales became popular with locals as Nu\u00f1ez popped up in places like the original Emmy\u2019s Spaghetti Shack location, a well-regarded residency at the former Broken Record in the Excelsior, and one-day stints at Old Devil Moon, El Rio, and Casements. The menu is composed of what Nu\u00f1ez calls \u201cborder town street food,\u201d befitting his time growing up in San Diego and Tijuana. It also doesn\u2019t hurt that Nu\u00f1ez has spent time in San Francisco kitchens such as State Bird Provisions, Buddy, and (now-closed) Cockscomb.<\/p>\n
Now, with partner Courtney Fujita, Nu\u00f1ez has opened a restaurant in Bernal Heights. Fujita\u2019s experience in bartending, having worked with the Future Bars group for nine years \u2014 the team behind Bourbon and Branch, Pagan Idol, and others \u2014 and local wine bars 20 Spot and Wildhawk, pairs well with Nu\u00f1ez, who has his own bartending experience to brag about. The couple hit some bumps with opening, but now diners can see the full expression of Nu\u00f1ez\u2019s food in an intimate space.<\/p>\n
The Chicano Nuevo dining room is awash in light-colored wood tables and white walls, all against the refurbished terrazzo flooring. The street-facing windows are covered with floor-to-ceiling drapes, and window gels in blue, orange, and yellow transmit beachy Baja vibes as the sun sets outside. The space feels modern, yet cozy, with a 70s-ish soul playlist in the background. Tableware also skews modern, with wooden, stone, and ceramic plates brought in by the course, and gold flatware.<\/p>\n
Alcohol is on pause for the time being, so that means Nu\u00f1ez and Fujita lean on nonalcoholic drinks, such as a trio of agua frescas ($12 each) offered at a recent dinner. Mine leaned more \u201cmedicinal\u201d with carrot, raspberry, ginger, and more, with hibiscus turning the drink a summertime shade of pink and the ginger offering some bite. My dining partner ordered the agua de tomate fresca, which offered a refreshing, mellow tomato taste and comes with a house tomato chip garnish.<\/p>\n
Pay close attention to the specials. Here, it almost reads more \u201csecret menu,\u201d where sidelined items from the regular Chicano Nuevo repertoire can live once again. At my dinner, the much-loved tamale negro ($22) was the add-on, featuring sherry-braised lengua, with cheese pull-inducing smoked Gouda. Squid ink gives the tamale its signature, all-black look with pickled jalape\u00f1os and crema, for a study in visual contrast and flavors. Let the team guide you: Fujita shared that this is a crowd favorite that we should really try, and she was open to letting my table of two share a tamal. (WORTH IT.)<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"
Chef Abraham Nu\u00f1ez\u2019s Chicano Nuevo began as a pop-up serving Ensenada-style Mexican food throughout San Francisco. His brand of fish tacos and tamales became popular with locals as Nu\u00f1ez popped up in places like the original Emmy\u2019s Spaghetti Shack location, a well-regarded residency at the former Broken Record in the Excelsior, and one-day stints at<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":43476,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[37],"tags":[2116,5050,5116,5114,5117,5115],"class_list":["post-43475","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-new-mexico","tag-dining-reports","tag-new-mexico","tag-new-mexico-dining","tag-new-mexico-food","tag-new-mexico-grocery-stores","tag-new-mexico-restaurants"],"share_on_mastodon":{"url":"https:\/\/vive.im\/@dc\/117388361413052263","error":""},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.diningandcooking.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/43475","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.diningandcooking.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.diningandcooking.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.diningandcooking.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.diningandcooking.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=43475"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.diningandcooking.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/43475\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.diningandcooking.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/43476"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.diningandcooking.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=43475"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.diningandcooking.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=43475"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.diningandcooking.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=43475"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}