Even bad hombres can be good friends when they're serving big hunks of pork belly with herbs, salad, sauces and fresh Mandarin pancakes to wrap it all up in. And that's what's in store when Bad Hombres opens in Surry Hills next week. It's a joint venture from Toby Wilson (Ghostboy Cantina), Sean McManus (Neighbourhood Surry Hills) and Jon Kennedy (the Sandwich Shop) who decided only three weeks ago to take over the Reservoir Street shopfront that used to house Sugarcane Thai restaurant.
Like Good Luck Pinbone, there's a firm end date on the venture, but until the building gets demolished Bar Hombres are going to be serving dinner four nights a week. Wilson says the menu will be evolving from Ghostboys taco origins, and sums it up as 'stuff on things'. This translates as Mexican techniques and recipes mixed with South East Asian and Japanese ingredients, all wrapped up in a delicious carb blanket.
The idea is a kind of 'choose your own adventure' take on sang choi bow, Peking duck pancakes and build your own tacos – you get meat, veg, salad and herbs on a tray with condiments to bind them and some sort of hand-help vehicle to hold it all together, be it pancakes, tortillas, lettuce cups or corn chips.
They're also going to be licensed so that they can serve a raft of fresh, easy-drinking natural Australian wines to go with all the herbs and spice in the food, a cheap lager for sweaty nights and a slushie machine for frozen margies.
Before you start thinking you too can open a restaurant in under a month, these guys basically inherited the kitchen ready to go, complete with plates and cutlery. All they needed to do was throw on a lick of paint, give everything a good scrub and they should be good to go from Wed Feb 29.
Bad Hombres, 40 Reservoir St, Surry Hills 2010.
Want more fusion food? How about some Nordic-Japanese café fare?