Ay Por Dios!, new Oaxaca-inspired restaurant, to open later this year

Ay Por Dios! Mexican Bistro, an upscale Mexican fusion restaurant, will open up on Franklin Avenue early this calendar year.

The restaurant brings together food items from Oaxaca, a city in Mexico, and Spain, but also presents food from other cuisines, these as sushi.

Miguel Rebolledo, the executive chef, mentioned Ay Por Dios! features dishes folks enjoy feeding on at distinctive dining establishments in one particular spot, which include even Asian and Mediterranean food items.

“The foods is likely to be substantial-quality,” he reported.

Edy Barahona, the owner and supervisor of Ay Por Dios!, claimed the cafe is impressed by authentic Oaxacan food and tradition. Oaxacan foods is quite pure, vibrant and flavorful, he reported. 

“You want to attempt actual foods? Go to Oaxaca,” he stated. “Do not go to extravagant dining establishments in Mexico, go to Oaxaca.”  

Barahona used 30 times in Oaxaca, learning various recipes firsthand. He said he programs to convey recipes from the streets of Oaxaca to Ay Por Dios!, replicating the dishes from scratch. 

The restaurant features a broad assortment of dishes, including multiple styles of Oaxacan mole sauce, new seafood and tomahawk steak. Barahona reported Ay Por Dios! is a spouse and children restaurant, but also caters to university college students, supplying far more reasonably priced alternatives throughout the day.

What sets Ay Por Dios! aside from other Mexican restaurants in North Carolina, Barahona reported, is that his complete culinary division obtained training from chefs from Mexico.

Barahona is also the owner of Kahlovera Mexican Bar & Grill in Meadowmont Village. He mentioned that from his very first calendar year doing work there, he has been given suggestions from buyers encouraging him to open up a cafe on Franklin Avenue.  

“It’s in which everybody goes for a nice dinner,” he stated. “The best restaurants are on Franklin Avenue.” 

Rebolledo claimed the bar is a essential function of Ay Por Dios!. The restaurant has partnered with substantial-finish Mexican tequila brand name Clase Azul, a whiskey manufacturer and different wine firms to produce its consume menu, which Barahona mentioned has a Miami-California component to it.

Cintia Vazquez, one particular of the restaurant’s administrators, claimed Clase Azul is “one of the ideal tequilas out there,” and the artwork on the bottle is thorough and beautiful.

Prospects have to obtain a specific variety of tequila bottles to accessibility the restaurant’s “private space,” she reported.

Barahona said that the personal room capabilities extra intimate areas where customers can provide their family and friends. 

Vazquez mentioned the restaurant’s inside design and style is impressed by Mexican culture and men and women who symbolize it, this sort of as the renowned Mexican painter Frida Kahlo and Mexican mariachi-type singer Vicente Fernández.

“Every spot we have in the cafe has been developed with endurance and a large amount of element,” Barahona reported.

He also said when going for walks by way of the cafe from the most important entrance to the lavatory, consumers will observe unique decorations impressed by distinct places in Mexico and Mexican society.

In accordance to Barahona, the non-public room’s inside layout is affected by the metropolis of Guadalajara, Mexico, and other areas of the cafe function decorations encouraged by Mexico Town.

Vazquez stated Ay Por Dios! will be a distinctive encounter for clients than other Mexican places to eat in North Carolina. 

“In North Carolina, when you think about Mexican (foods), you now know what you’re anticipating,” she reported. “Your normal burritos, tacos, with cilantro and onions, rice and beans.”

Nevertheless, she mentioned Mexican food items is a diverse cuisine and Ay Por Dios! wants to provide Mexico, California and Miami to the Chapel Hill local community.

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