Casa Felix, a new Mexican restaurant at 190 Seventh Avenue in Chelsea, puts chef Antelmo Ambrosio’s Oaxacan background at the center of Merchants Hospitality’s latest dining concept. The restaurant officially debuted in July, according to Observer, marking the hospitality group’s move into a more explicitly upscale Mexican format.
Ambrosio oversees the kitchen and broader culinary direction. In a profile by BroadwayWorld, he describes learning to cook as a child in Oaxaca before entering professional kitchens without formal culinary training. He later worked at SouthWestNY after its reopening following the September 11 attacks and developed under chefs including Wade Burch, Roberto Santibañez and Rufino Rengifo, according to the same profile.
A modern Mexican social house
Casa Felix draws on the image of María Félix, the Mexican Golden Age cinema star, to frame the restaurant as a modern Mexican social house. Its menu translates Ambrosio’s regional point of view into contemporary share plates: Observer highlighted a little gem salad with chapulín, or grasshopper, vinaigrette, along with pasilla chile mezcal sours. BroadwayWorld identifies mole negro as one of Ambrosio’s defining favorites.
The restaurant is open for dinner seven days a week, with an outdoor sidewalk café, candlelit indoor dining, weekday happy hour and weekend brunch. Casa Felix lists dinner hours as 5 p.m. to 11 p.m. and brunch as noon to 5 p.m.; its published phone number is 212.366.7267.
Part of a broader Mexican-food conversation
Casa Felix arrives amid a wider shift in how Mexican cooking is presented in the United States. The New York Times described a culinary renaissance that has expanded attention beyond Tex-Mex and toward more regional Mexican and Mexican American cooking. That national context helps explain the positioning of Casa Felix, but it does not establish a specific trend in Chelsea or show how the restaurant will perform.
There is also a precedent for pairing refined presentation with regional Mexican traditions, though not a direct comparison. In a report on Oaxaca, the New York Times described Criollo as an earlier project combining polished design with traditional cooking. Criollo was located in Mexico and operated in a different setting, while Casa Felix is a New York social-house concept, so the comparison is limited to the broader idea of contemporary dining rooted in local culinary traditions.
A new direction for Merchants Hospitality
For Merchants Hospitality, Casa Felix broadens a portfolio that has included steakhouses, bistros, Chinese restaurants, lounges and waterfront venues. Ambrosio’s role extends beyond one kitchen: BroadwayWorld says he helps oversee menus, chefs and culinary ideas across several of the group’s Manhattan restaurants, including concepts such as Watermark at Pier 15 and Mezze On The River. The group’s relocation of Philippe Chow to a new Fifth Avenue address, reported by Hoodline, reflects other recent movement within its Manhattan portfolio, though it is a separate business development from Casa Felix’s opening.
What remains to be seen is whether Casa Felix will become a durable Chelsea destination or primarily serve as a high-profile expansion of Merchants Hospitality’s concept portfolio. For now, its clearest distinction is the pairing of an Oaxacan-trained, self-taught chef’s perspective with a polished restaurant format in one of Manhattan’s established dining neighborhoods.
