You will find no sombreros here, nor will you find a zig-zagged taco stand. The words ‘California’ and ‘Baja’ are but a distant memory from the moment you ascend the staircase, leaving Clarence Street behind and landing firmly in an Oaxacan casa. The soaring chamber of a converted CBD warehouse is one of a series of new openings by the Milpa Collective – the newcomer hospitality powerhouse sweeping across Sydney on a mission to showcase the very best of regional Mexican cuisine.
This grand double height space is taken well advantage of, a stage area raised six feet up where co-owner Liber Osorio's father serenades diners with Spanish pop covers, providing a boppy soundtrack to this high energy yet refined city eatery, that pays homage to the Oaxacan municipality, ‘Santa Catarina Minas’. The 100-seat mezcal bar features a large wine cellar as well as an intimate private dining room, making it the perfect place for a post-work knock-off, or a weekend out on the town.
Milpa Collective’s executive chef Manuel Diaz leads the venue, drawing inspiration for the menu from his own upbringing, meaning the dishes are fiercely regional and don't shy away from super traditional ingredients, so you can bet every dish will be as delicious as it is exciting. This wouldn't be a Mexican joint without a tequila or three, and with the majority of the world’s mezcal being sourced from Oaxaca, Santa Catarina showcases some of the more rare and sought after varieties. It’s a rite of passage to start with one of the dozens on offer, many of which are imported exclusively for the group, but if you’re feeling trepidation at staring down a shot of straight spirit there’s no harm in cracking on with a salt rimmed Margarita or an ice-cold cerveza. Now that we’ve imbibed, it’s time to eat.
As with all good restaurants (in this writer’s humble opinion), everything is designed to share and reflects the ancestral fare of Oaxaca, with traditional Mexican dishes such as Mole Madre (a deeply earthy and complex sauce of chilli, nuts, spices and dried fruit) which utilises more than fifty ingredients and is made using ancient techniques passed down from the indigenous communities of the region. A punchy and generous ceviche of snapper with a powerful leche de tigre – an eye-wateringly citric marinade of lime, chilli and garlic that is as equally good as a starter as it is a hangover cure the following morning. And word to the wise, a hangover is a distinct possibility after a night at Santa Catarina, the good times roll and they simply do not relent. Best to keep eating.
Build your own bites on hand-pressed tortillas, swaddled lovingly in a linen cloth and piled high with perfectly cooked, lightly charred and tender sirloin. A saccharine sweet mango salsa is balanced by earthy and warmly spiced chichilo mole, a bitter 400 year old secret recipe that blends cocoa beans and cinnamon. Whack a little piquant green salsa on top and you’re in for a very good time.
We once again meet the restaurant litmus test by way of the zucchini flower – many have tried and few have yet to nail the intricate dance of crisp batter, structural integrity and flavour of this deceptively simple dish. Thankfully, we pass with flying colours. By stuffing the blossom with finely diced, almost pureed, zucchini and pumpkin with a hint of heat and tropical sweetness in a habanero and mango salsa, a strip of blackened zucchini for dramatic effect, the bloom reaches its potential and then some.
At this stage you may be tempted to curl up on the brushed suede booth you’ve been bopping in, and you can hardly be blamed. In the spirit of Oaxacan hospitality, the dishes are generous and the drinks will flow, whether you’ve stuck to the mezcals, a brew or two, or one of the many Aussie wines on the list. But one thing’s for sure, you’ll be back again and again. We know we will.