Eve Aronoff Fernandez now serves up Cuban street food at Frita Batidos in four cities, but when the space next to the original downtown location opened up, she and her culinary collaborators responded with their typical enthusiastic ethos: “Why not?!”
Its Spanish equivalent, ¡¿Por Qué No?!, is the name of their upcoming concept of all-day Latin-inspired breakfasts, snacks, coffee, tea, and aguas frescas. “It’s happening,” she confirms, though reluctant to forecast an opening date for the successor to Samba Bowls at 113 W. Washington, previously the century-long home of Vogel’s Lock and Safe.
Aronoff Fernandez, her husband Carlos Fernandez Nicolas, and several longtime friends have been testing recipes and developing the menu for what the seasoned chef calls “a really personal project.
“Over the years we spent a lot of time with his family in Mexico making and eating amazing favorite family dishes. And it’s been the same with some of our partners.”
Flashback: Eve’s Blooming Riot (Feb. 2011)
The two-story space will include what she calls a “hangout-slash-library reading room” upstairs. She envisions ¡¿Por Qué No?! as a complement to Frita’s and the neighborhood—“very warm, convivial, but a lot of attention to detail and passion for the ingredients and the culture.”
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