Camacho Garage, featuring contemporary Mexican street food and a bar menu focused on beer, specialty cocktails, tequila, mezcal and other traditional and inspired Mexican beverages, is set to open in the Westville neighborhood of New Haven at 36 Fountain Street (corner of Fountain Street and Central Avenue) on September 28, 2020. From co-owners Robert Bolduc and Marc Knight, Executive Chef/co-owner Arturo Franco-Camacho and the team behind the award-winning Geronimo Tequila Bar and Southwest Grill, Shell & Bones Oyster Bar and Grill and Nantucket’s Bar Yoshi, the restaurant offers a fun and lively atmosphere with an elevated vintage garage theme throughout its indoor and outdoor dining areas.
“I’m beyond excited to bring this completely new experience to my adopted hometown of New Haven, sharing the flavors and experiences that I grew up with in Mexico cooking with my mother and grandmother, and spending time with my father at the garage he owned,” said Camacho. “In addition to celebrating both traditional and inspired recipes from my childhood, I’m very focused on providing guests with a healthy, fresh and delicious experience that integrates and celebrates local, seasonal ingredients while still providing flexibility and fun for those with dietary restrictions such as gluten-free, vegetarian and dairy-free.”
The all-day food menu features an assortment of small plates of both traditional and Mexican-inspired street food recipes. In addition to ceviche and raw bar offerings, an extensive taco menu, with fillings such as adobo marinated chicken, slow roasted lamb, confit of duck and wild mushrooms and cactus, is offered as a classic taco on housemade, heirloom corn tortillas or “naked” as a filling over a bowl of grains, beans, greens and avocado. Other small bite menu items include Tamal de Birria (slowly braised lamb and corn dumplings), Mexican Hot Dog (bacon wrapped turkey sausage dog), Ensalada de Nopales (Cactus), Duck Tambores (drumettes), Esquites Tlacoyo and more. Larger plates are featured as rotating, daily specials; a children’s menu is also available. Desserts include churros, flan and paletas.
The beverage program at Camacho Garage continues to celebrate the restaurant’s Mexican influence, offering a large selection of bottle and tap beer, including many Mexican bottled favorites, as well as specialty cocktails, tequila, mezcal and other traditional and Mexican-inspired beverages that complement the food menu. “Low Octane” offerings include non-alcoholic beverages such as Jarritos fruit sodas, Topo Chico mineral water, Horchata, seasonal, housemade frescas and spritzers, refreshing iced teas and house-squeezed vegetable juices. The “High Octane” menu includes favorites from the restaurant’s sister brands (i.e. the Geronimo Margarita), as well as 15+ original cocktail offerings such as Papa Doble (Montelobos Mezcal Joven, Lazzaroni maraschino, grapefruit, lime), Frankie Goes to Hollywood (Plantation Pineapple, Lagrimas de Dolore Mezcal Joven, ginger beer), Senor Camacho (Presidente Brandy, Bruxo “X” Mezcal, lime, agave) and Wake the Dead (Casamigos Reposado, vanilla simple, espresso, cocoa powder), amongst others.
Designer Christian P. Arkay-Leliever collaborated with the ownership team to create this sophisticated, fun environment with a vintage garage feel, in a former historic bank. The space features an industrial chic look of concrete, wire, glass and steel, with the zinc-top bar, reminiscent of a vintage workbench, being the central energy to the indoor space. The color scheme incorporates the “Petroliana” feel with burnt red, vintage greens and whites and concrete grey featured throughout the space, including the leather covered machine shop-like bar stools, blackened steel chairs with green leather seats and high and low-top tables and banquettes made of reclaimed oak treated with an antique varnish. A strategically placed soffit around the bar seamlessly offers the integration of televisions for bar patrons. Vintage industrial porcelain lighting fixtures that hang from the exposed ceiling are part of the guest experience, providing an energetic yet comfortable aura in the space. Fully opening oversized garage doors provide an abundance of light into the space, as well as provide a seamless energy from the indoor dining space to the outdoor patio dining, featuring fire pits, a large shipping container bar and a heated, covered pergola. Large graphic tattoos marrying the vintage garage theme with Mexican street food concept provide artwork to the indoor hand applied cement walls and brick outdoor space, complementing other custom and vintage signage and artwork placed throughout the restaurant.
Camacho Garage will be open seven days a week for dinner service, expanding to offer lunch, weekend brunch, late night, happy hour and takeout options in the coming weeks, as well as on- and off-site private event options.
Reservations are accepted via OpenTable.com, or by contacting the restaurant at 203-691-1969.
About Camacho Garage:
Camacho Garage brings acclaimed Executive Chef/co-owner Arturo Franco-Camacho’s exciting and unique tastes of contemporary Mexican street food to the lively Westville neighborhood in New Haven, Connecticut. With a small plates food menu heavily focusing on tacos with housemade corn tortillas, ceviches, salads, tostadas and guacamole made with fresh, local and seasonal ingredients, the complementing beverage program offers an extensive and unique menu of beer, wine, cocktails, tequila, mezcal and other traditional and inspired Mexican beverages. Located at 36 Fountain Street, the restaurant, with a sophisticated, vintage garage atmosphere, features indoor dining with a large bar area, outdoor dining with fire pits, a large shipping container bar and a heated, covered pergola, as well as takeout and catering services. For more information, visitwww.camachogarage.com. The restaurant can also be found on Facebook (@camachogarage), Instagram (@camachogarage) and Twitter (@camachogarage).
About Chef Arturo Franco-Camacho:
Executive Chef for Geronimo Tequila Bar and Southwest Grill, Shell & Bones Oyster Bar and Grill and Camacho Garage, Arturo Franco-Camacho (Franco) is a veteran of the Connecticut food scene whose extensive repertoire spans from 5 years as Chef de cuisine on the prestigious QE2 to opening several of his own successful restaurants (Roomba, Bespoke, and Suburban) in New Haven and Branford, CT. He has also served as Guest Chef at the Director’s Dinner at the Sundance Film Festival.
Chef Franco’s cuisine has been recognized as “Excellent” in the New York Times, and has received accolades from Connecticut Magazine, Yankee Magazine, Zagat and on Food Network’s “Food Nation with Bobby Flay.” He has been nominated for Chef of the Year by the Connecticut Restaurant Association and has been recognized as an Ambassador Chef by the annual Greenwich Wine + Food Festival.
He is a graduate of the Culinary Institute of America.
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