The Chef Behind Peruvian Pop-Up La Chingana Is Opening a Restaurant in Poncey-Highland

After working Peruvian pop-up La Chingana for over a yr, chef Arnaldo Castillo is opening his first restaurant in Poncey-Highland this summer time. Castillo is teaming up with veteran Atlanta restaurateur Howard Hsu (Candy Auburn BBQ) to open a 130-seat Peruvian restaurant known as Tio Lucho’s on North Highland Avenue in June.

Situated within the former CO sushi house, the restaurant bears the affectionate nickname (“Uncle Luis”) Castillo’s father earned from the Atlanta Peruvian group working in a number of Peruvian eating places throughout the town. “I needed to drag from that reminiscence and honor him in that method,” Castillo says.

Castillo’s father, who has since moved again to Piura, Peru, was identified for his ceviche in Atlanta, one thing the brand new restaurant will function on its coastal Peruvian menu. Castillo plans to drag from household recollections and experiences in Piura and Lima to determine the seafood-heavy menu at Tio Lucho’s, which blends Peruvian methods and recipes with Southern elements. Search for dishes like tiradito (just like sashimi), lomo saltado (sirloin steak stir fry), and some favorites from pop-up La Chingana on the menu, which is designed for sharing.

Castillo is joined within the kitchen by chef Manuel Lara, beforehand the sous chef at Serpas True Meals. His fiance, Julie Hinson, who at present crafts the desserts for the pop-up, will develop the preliminary dessert menu for Tio Lucho’s, pulling from the preferred sweets served at La Chingana.

Count on cocktails impressed by Peruvian flavors and conventional drinks in addition to Spanish and Latin American wines by the glass and bottle. Beverage marketing consultant Sonny Howell is working to create the drinks menu for Tio Lucho’s with bartender Dillon Slay, who labored behind the bar at Kimball Home and now runs cocktail pop-up the Hourglass.

Castillo says La Chingana helped the chef construct the muse for Tio Lucho’s, giving him the house to experiment with dishes and additional discover Peruvian delicacies, tradition, and the nation’s historical past. Now he desires his first restaurant to be a neighborhood spot in an space of Atlanta that additionally holds sentimental worth for him.

“It’s a full-circle second for me,” Castillo says. “I first began working for Hector Santiago at Pura Vida how ever a few years in the past, and it was my first expertise into fantastic eating and farm-to-table delicacies. The truth that I get to open a restaurant proper throughout the road is fairly cool.”

Hsu, who co-owns Candy Auburn BBQ throughout the road along with his sister Anita, says Poncey-Highland is a rising neighborhood with a supportive group, making it a horny place to open a restaurant. He and Castillo linked at a pop-up collaboration between La Chingana and Candy Auburn BBQ final fall, exploring the connection between Chinese language and Peruvian meals.

“I used to be similar to, ‘man, this man — he’s received one thing particular’,” Hsu says. “I felt like I clicked with him, in order that’s all the time necessary to me.”

The 2 ultimately started discussing Castillo’s restaurant targets. The chef already had the marketing strategy written in addition to the identify and branding in place.

“We each come from immigrant households and backgrounds, and I feel we worth the American dream,” says Castillo. Additionally they share related views on meals. Each really feel it’s necessary to characterize their cuisines, traditions, and cultures “the appropriate method,” Castillo provides.

Just like the meals menu, the design for Tio Lucho’s will mirror the mix of Peruvian and Atlanta cultures discovered on the restaurant, stuffed with lush vegetation and vibrant colours all through the house to evoke a coastal really feel.

A number of the design parts from the earlier sushi restaurant will stay, together with the bar and patio. Castillo and Hsu tapped Peruvian artist Franco Bejarano to create a mural close to the bar incorporating the colourful Peruvian font referred to as “chicha” that reads, “En Atlanta, se comer rico” or “In Atlanta, you eat good.” Graphic designer Dio Jensen, who can also be Peruvian, is designing the emblem for Tio Lucho’s, and native artwork will adorn the partitions as a nod to the restaurant’s roots in Georgia.

To start out, Tio Lucho’s will serve dinner, Wednesday by way of Saturday, with plans to ultimately add Sunday brunch and lunch. Castillo and Hsu are kicking off a collection of pop-ups quickly to introduce Tio Lucho’s to the group earlier than it opens.

Time is already flying by for Castillo, who marries Hinson in Might, adopted by the opening of Tio Lucho’s in June. The truth of opening his personal restaurant hasn’t totally sunk in but, Castillo says, and doubtless received’t till he’s within the kitchen at Tio Lucho’s.

“Till I’m breaking down my first snapper to make ceviche right here, then it’s recreation time.”

675 North Highland Avenue, Atlanta. @tioluchos.