“It started with the hype of a tortilla,” Fidel Caballero explains. He had already perfected flour tortillas at his Michelin-starred Mexican fine dining restaurant Corima on the Lower East Side.
The chef and owner, who grew up in El Paso, knew the importance of making the superb tortilla — in this case, a sourdough flour version made with butter. But why limit them to just one restaurant? “I think that the flour tortilla deserves the same respect as baguettes and sourdough loaves,” Caballero says.
Enter Vato, the team’s new daytime tortilleria and bakery and nighttime neighborhood restaurant with Basque and Northern Mexican leanings, opening in Park Slope at 226 Seventh Avenue, between Third and Fourth streets on Thursday, November 20. The name is the Chicano slang term for “homie.”
The pecan tart, chocolate chip-hazelnut-praline cookies, and cinnamon bun at Vato. Paco Alonso/Vato
Vato fits about 30 people in a space with wood and concrete details. There’s the five-seat bar from which people will order daytime food and drinks, an open kitchen, and a back patio with room for 25 people. The walls will feature street photography of Ciudad Juárez and El Paso shot by Paco Alonso. “We want to be a neighborhood spot,” Caballero tells Eater of his wishes for Vato. He wants people to stop in for coffee, to pick up tortillas for home, sit around for dinner, or just grab a quick bite. “I want them to feel like our homies.” The restaurant comes from his wife, Sofía Ostos, along with Paco Alonso and Erica Alonso, his friends growing up along the Mexican-American border in Ciudad Juárez and El Paso.
During the daytime, Vato will work as a counter-service spot, serving those sourdough flour tortillas in packs of 10. Though Caballero notes that Vato’s tortilla is “a little bit different” from the Corima one, “it has the same ethos.” The tortillas are also used for Chihuahua-style burritos, long and slender concoctions filled with stews (it’s a style also featured at new burrito hotspot Los Burritos Juarez in Fort Greene). Expect fillings like hickory and mesquite-smoked burnt ends, soft-scrambled eggs, and cheddar cheese (an ode to Texas barbecue and a take on the classic bacon-egg-cheese sandwiches); pollo en mole; braised pork shoulder with salsa verde and potatoes; and the chile relleno, where fried poblano peppers are stuffed with asadero cheese and beans. Look out for barbacoa tortas too.
A Chihuahua-style burrito at Vato. Paco Alonso/Vato
Corima pastry chef Erick Richa is overseeing the pastries, which will include filled conchas (think yuzu and corn husk curds), hazelnut-praline-chocolate chip cookies, brioche with cajetas, and marranitos, the pig-shaped Mexican gingerbread cookies.
For a.m. drinks, Vato will serve Oaxacan coffee made with single-origin beans sourced from Sobre Masa, plus matcha, aguas frescas like horchatas and Jamaicas (hibiscus).
Vato’s nighttime shift turns the space into a casual table-service restaurant and wine bar serving Basque and Northern Mexican dishes. Caballero describes it as “Basque techniques with Northern Mexican flavors. He’s drawing from his background, as well as when he cooked at Spain restaurant Martin Berasategui. “Northern Mexican and Basque cultures have this thing that they both grill everything,” he says. “So we make that connection.”
That will lead to dishes and tapas like thin short ribs; grilled shrimp; avocado and yuzu with fried beef tripe and tostadas; beer-battered smelt with fried egg mayonnaise; cider-steamed cockles; tortilla de bacalao, a Spanish-style omelet with cod, potatoes, cod machaca (where the fish is shredded into a floss-like texture), and pil pil sauce; mollete de txangurro, an open-faced sandwich with a donostiarra-style crab and butter beans; and chistorra talo, where a warm corn-flour tortilla will wrap a griddled Basque sausage.
The barbacoa torta at Vato. Paco Alonso/Vato
Corima wine director Mariano Caray’s evening beverage list leans heavily on natural wines from Mexico and Spain, think cavas, albariños, and garnacha, alongside rieslings and Champagnes. Also from Spain and Mexico will be ciders, vermouth, and amari, plus drinks made with fino sherries and vin jaune, and nonalcoholic options like an oat horchata.
Initially, Vato will open with daytime hours only from 7 a.m. to 3 p.m. Thursday through Monday. Dinner will start sometime in mid-December from 5 to 10 p.m. Harkening to its homie vibes, it’ll be open for walk-ins only (no reservations).