One of the neighborhood’s most popular new pop-up restaurants is finally gearing up to open its very first brick-and-mortar space.
Corima is a popular new culinary concept from Chef Fidel Caballero. Born and raised in the border town of Ciudad Juarez/El Paso, Chef Caballero has been cooking for nearly his entire life. Spending much of his life traveling the world in search of new flavors and techniques, he awakened his passion for seasonal when he worked at Martin Berasategui, the eponymous, three-Michelin-starred restaurant from Spain’s most award-winning chef. When he moved to New York, Fidel joined the Michelin-starred restaurant Contra as sous chef, refining his skills and learning everything he needed to launch a restaurant of his own design.
Last year, Chef Caballero started developing a new restaurant concept called Corima and began debuting it at pop-ups across the city. Inspired by the cuisine of Mexico’s northern region, Corima serves what Fidel calls “Progressive Mexican Cuisine”. According to Chef Caballero, New York’s Mexican food scene has been limited to very specific regions of Mexico, and so for Corima, he endeavored to draw from the never-ending exploration of Mexican land and distill it into a type of Mexican cuisine that has yet to be expressed in this country.
For the past year, Corima has had successful residencies at recognizable spots across New York, Mexico, and Paris, and now the time has come for Corima’s first-ever brick-and-mortar space. Corima’s first full-time New York location is currently slated to open sometime this year at 3 Allen Street, between Canal and Division Streets. The location was formerly home to a bus tour business and is expected to seat a total of 36 guests inside at one time with an additional stand-up bar for beer and cocktail service.
According to a sample menu attached with Fidel’s liquor license application, Corima’s full-time restaurant will offer the same elevated northern Mexican fare that fans have come to rave about. Sample items include oysters with fermented rhubarb, tuna crudo, beef tartare, a squash pancake, duck with chile pasado, and wagyu beef with burnt leaks. Dessert options include the sunchoke panna cotta, honey mesquite taiyaki, and nixtamalized sweet potato tart. Cormia will also serve a robust array of craft cocktails, including drinks like the “Ship of Fools” with white rum and luxardo, and the “Cormia Sour” with pear brandy and chamomile simple syrup. Corima also provides a very popular omakase experience that offers guests an exclusive tasting menu curated by Chef Caballero himself.
At the moment, Caballero and his team are currently getting ready to meet with the community board to acquire their liquor license. They are currently proposing operating hours of 5:00 PM – 12:00 AM every day, seven days a week. For more updates, you can follow Corima on Instagram and find out when their next popup is scheduled to launch.
