New Haven Register (Sunday) (New Haven, CT)
CAMACHO GARAGE
New eatery adds flair to Westville corner
If you’re familiar with lively Geronimo Tequila Bar and Southwest Grill in New Haven, you might wonder what Chef Arturo Franco-Camacho is doing differently in his latest restaurant, Camacho Garage, which officially opens Monday, Sept. 28, after a soft opening over the weekend.
“This is much more contemporary Mexican,” said the eatery’s Assistant Manager Christine Puglisi, “featuring southern California/Baja Mexico, where Chef Franco is from. “So it’s really like a homecoming story for him, where it’s the inspiration of him growing up eating tacos out of his father’s garage.”
Camacho said Southwest food was America’s first cuisines, a mix of cultures and peoples, and his goal at Geronimo was authentic flavors of Sante Fe, New Mexico.
“But myself I was fighting the fact that ... if you go to any restaurant now, you see tacos... So my goal in Geronimo is to keep that but I see all that was pulling me to do something more authentic.”
Authentic as in the new place, with its ceviche, a raw bar and various chiles, he said. “That is how we would do ceviche in Mexico. It is more rustic but really, really good. Very simple.
“It’s really like a homecoming story for him, where it’s the inspiration of him growing up eating tacos out of his father’s garage.”
Assistant Manager Christine Puglisi, assistant manager, Camacho’s Garage
More so, I’m from Tijuana, I have the Pacifico (regions of Baja) and I have the Gulf (of California). So I do up with all that stuff.”
The new restaurant, located not in a former garage but former bank at the corner of Central Avenue and Fountain Street in the heart of New Haven’s Westville section, is the latest entry into New Haven’s diverse dining scene by co-owners Camacho, Robert Bolduc and Marc Knight, who also run Shell & Bones Oyster Bar on City Point and Bar Yoshi in Nantucket.
A preview Wednesday evening for press, bloggers and Instagram “influencers” (who spend a LOT of time photographing their food) featured a perfectly blended mojito and margarita, Herb Guacamole, Ceviche De Nopales Hongos (wild mushrooms, grilled cactus, onion, cilantro, citrus), tasty Ancho Fries (these were straight and thin but the actual menu will have curly fries) and an amazing, hot melted queso cheese mix with mushrooms and tomato garnish served in a
(avocado smashing bowl) with flour tortillas on the side.
But there’s an emphasis on tacos and small plates on the all-day menu of Mexican street food, so we sampled marinated chicken tacos, a vegetable taco and delicious beer-battered cod taco with cabbage slaw, fresh salsa and baja crema on handmade corn tortillas. The tacos are in fact made and seasoned differently from those at Geronimo, said Puglisi, who helped reopen the other two properties in town after the pandemic shutdown.
Other food items will include tostadas, tortas, salads, empanadas and made-to-order guac mixed in a large molcajete in the dining room. Larger plates will be available as rotating, daily specials. Desserts will include churros, flan and paletas. Our dessert sampler featured bite-sized figs filled with chocolate and cinnamon, sweet fried plaintains on a cracker and a tamarind paleta (identical to a popsicle on a stick).
Service station signs among the booths, steel, glass, wire and wood beams advance the industrial chic look and vintage garage theme by designer Christian P. Arkay-Leliever.
“I always wanted to celebrate my dad,” said Camacho. “He had a garage in Mexico and gave me tacos every week in there.” The chef is one of 11 children, so he’s not timid when it comes to taking a risk.
And opening a restaurant during a pandemic with all the restrictions takes nerve, right? we asked Puglisi, gesturing to Plexiglas and waiters in masks.
“We’ve always had our bars enclosed, we’ve been able to do the proper 6-foot seating or in the absence of that, the Plexi(glas). So there’s a lot of familiarity with it for myself, going through the procedures reopening both restaurants,” said Puglisi, who grew up nearby on Fountain Street.
“Our goal,” said co-owner Bolduc in a release, “is to truly be a neighborhood gathering place, inviting couples, families and friends into a fun environment that’s at the crossroads of this tight-knit area. Our large indoor dining and bar area will feature garage doors opening to a large outdoor seating area with a fireplace, truly offering a window in the heart of Westville.”
The feel of the restaurant in good weather is open, lively and relaxed, at least until mid-evening moments when the city sounds of ambulances and impossibly loud motorcycles can make you pause or order another drink. (Speaking of which, there’s a nice selection of craft beers, wine and cocktails.)
Opening in the sixth month of a pandemic is hard enough, but in late October or November those garage doors will close to the cold, making it indoor dining only.
Asked with a raised eyebrow about the pandemic-era challenge, Puglisi said, “I know, but you know what? Franco, he’s a crazy chef, he’s got crazy flavors. He’s our crazy fearless leader. So if anybody can do it, it’s absolutely Chef Franco,” she laughed.
She noted that the much-beloved Delaney’s (closed after a 2014 fire) is also reopening nearby during the pandemic. So take that, 2020.