Last week we got a glimpse inside La Urbana, the Mexican restaurant and mezcal bar coming soon to the corner of Divisadero and Grove.
There's definitely plenty of work to be done before the restaurant's announced opening date of August 14th, but the space is coming together. We'll try to give you the basics so you can get a sense of the pretty ambitious vision for the location. When you enter the doors on the Grove Street side, you're first confronted with the large zinc-topped bar, replete with vintage wooden furniture from Mexico hung eclectically on the wall behind it.
To the left of the bar (in the back) is a smaller space which will become the mezcaleria.
It's far from finished, so we can't show you much, but co-owner Juan Garduño told us there's a heavy emphasis on black details (throughout the restaurant, in fact), which reflects the aesthetic found in many mezcal bars in Mexico.
The rest of the space on the corner facing Divis and Grove will serve as a dining area.
As you head west along Grove, you enter a patio area, which has natural light pouring in from above and tilework on the floor imported from Merida, Mexico. There will also be a tree installed in the center of the space.
This is envisioned as an area where people can have a drink and/or wait for tables outside of the main dining area. It's also the site of the bathrooms, where the tilework continues.
Continuing west from the patio, you head up a small set of stairs to the Mercado.
This will be a more casual space, open in the daytime as well as the evening, selling options like tacos and to-go items. It will be open to the street, Garduño told us. The mercado will open a few months later than the restaurant, so at the moment there's not much to show you. (Sorry.)
And then there's an entire second-floor space, of which we were previously unaware. Not only will there be additional seating up here, but extremely importantly, they're planning to add a rooftop terrace facing Divisadero and Grove, right here:
Again, this won't be opening in August, but that just gives you something to look forward to.
For a preview of menu items and more details on the space, check out Tablehopper's excellent writeup from last week. Basically its an impressive project that feels like 3 or 4 destinations in one, and we're pretty excited to see the finished product.
We'll keep an eye on things and will give you an update once the space is ready for business.
There's definitely plenty of work to be done before the restaurant's announced opening date of August 14th, but the space is coming together. We'll try to give you the basics so you can get a sense of the pretty ambitious vision for the location. When you enter the doors on the Grove Street side, you're first confronted with the large zinc-topped bar, replete with vintage wooden furniture from Mexico hung eclectically on the wall behind it.
