After functioning Peruvian pop-up La Chingana for over a year, chef Arnaldo Castillo is opening his very first cafe in Poncey-Highland this summertime. Castillo is teaming up with veteran Atlanta restaurateur Howard Hsu (Sweet Auburn BBQ) to open a 130-seat Peruvian restaurant identified as Tio Lucho’s on North Highland Avenue in June.
Situated in the former CO sushi space, the cafe bears the affectionate nickname (“Uncle Luis”) Castillo’s father gained from the Atlanta Peruvian local community doing work in various Peruvian eating places across the city. “I required to pull from that memory and honor him in that way,” Castillo says.
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Castillo’s father, who has considering the fact that moved back again to Piura, Peru, was identified for his ceviche in Atlanta, a thing the new cafe will attribute on its coastal Peruvian menu. Castillo designs to pull from loved ones recollections and activities in Piura and Lima to set up the seafood-significant menu at Tio Lucho’s, which blends Peruvian tactics and recipes with Southern components. Appear for dishes like tiradito (identical to sashimi), lomo saltado (sirloin steak stir fry), and a couple of favorites from pop-up La Chingana on the menu, which is developed for sharing.
Castillo is joined in the kitchen area by chef Manuel Lara, previously the sous chef at Serpas Legitimate Food. His fiance, Julie Hinson, who at this time crafts the desserts for the pop-up, will build the initial dessert menu for Tio Lucho’s, pulling from the most well-liked sweets served at La Chingana.
Count on cocktails inspired by Peruvian flavors and regular beverages as nicely as Spanish and Latin American wines by the glass and bottle. Beverage expert Sonny Howell is performing to build the drinks menu for Tio Lucho’s with bartender Dillon Slay, who labored powering the bar at Kimball Property and now operates cocktail pop-up the Hourglass.
Castillo claims La Chingana assisted the chef build the foundation for Tio Lucho’s, giving him the room to experiment with dishes and even further discover Peruvian delicacies, lifestyle, and the country’s historical past. Now he needs his initially restaurant to be a community location in an space of Atlanta that also retains sentimental value for him.
“It’s a entire-circle instant for me,” Castillo claims. “I 1st began operating for Hector Santiago at Pura Vida how ever a lot of decades in the past, and it was my initial working experience into great eating and farm-to-desk cuisine. The actuality that I get to open up a cafe proper across the street is pretty interesting.”
Hsu, who co-owns Sweet Auburn BBQ across the avenue with his sister Anita, suggests Poncey-Highland is a developing community with a supportive neighborhood, producing it an interesting location to open up a cafe. He and Castillo connected at a pop-up collaboration in between La Chingana and Sweet Auburn BBQ very last slide, exploring the link among Chinese and Peruvian food.
“I was just like, ‘man, this dude — he’s bought something special’,” Hsu states. “I felt like I clicked with him, so that is generally vital to me.”
The two sooner or later began talking about Castillo’s restaurant aims. The chef now experienced the organization approach penned as well as the identify and branding in position.
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“We equally appear from immigrant households and backgrounds, and I believe we worth the American aspiration,” claims Castillo. They also share identical views on food. Equally really feel it is important to symbolize their cuisines, traditions, and cultures “the correct way,” Castillo adds.
Like the foodstuff menu, the structure for Tio Lucho’s will reflect the blend of Peruvian and Atlanta cultures identified at the cafe, stuffed with lush plants and vibrant colors all through the room to evoke a coastal come to feel.
Some of the style and design factors from the earlier sushi restaurant will continue to be, together with the bar and patio. Castillo and Hsu tapped Peruvian artist Franco Bejarano to develop a mural around the bar incorporating the lively Peruvian font recognised as “chicha” that reads, “En Atlanta, se comer rico” or “In Atlanta, you consume great.” Graphic designer Dio Jensen, who is also Peruvian, is coming up with the brand for Tio Lucho’s, and regional art will adorn the walls as a nod to the restaurant’s roots in Georgia.
To start out, Tio Lucho’s will serve evening meal, Wednesday by way of Saturday, with options to inevitably include Sunday brunch and lunch. Castillo and Hsu are kicking off a sequence of pop-ups soon to introduce Tio Lucho’s to the neighborhood ahead of it opens.
Time is currently traveling by for Castillo, who marries Hinson in May, followed by the opening of Tio Lucho’s in June. The actuality of opening his own cafe has not thoroughly sunk in but, Castillo claims, and almost certainly will not until finally he’s in the kitchen area at Tio Lucho’s.
“Until I’m breaking down my to start with snapper to make ceviche listed here, then it’s recreation time.”
675 North Highland Avenue, Atlanta. @tioluchos.
