Since 2012, Maximo, helmed by the chef Eduardo García, has been drawing the city’s food cognoscenti to the Roma neighborhood for its innovative approach that fuses Mexican ingredients with European techniques. Now, García and his wife and business partner, Gabriela López-Cruz, are introducing their newest venture, Lalo!, a pizzeria and cafe situated directly across the street. And thanks to García’s training at Michelin-starred restaurants in Mexico City and New York (Enrique Olvera’s famed Pujol and Le Bernardin, respectively), Lalo! promises more than the average grab-a-slice experience. Potato, rosemary and truffle oil pizza, inspired by a trip to Puglia, will be on the menu, along with striped sea bass served with caramelized onions and gremolata, salads using lettuce from the Mexican region of Xochimilco and suckling pig in salsa verde paired with a Mexican succulent known as verdolagas.
Beginning in December, García plans to teach cooking classes in the restaurant’s state-of-the-art kitchen. And the dining space, conceived by the San Francisco-based designer Charles de Lisle — the man behind the chic interiors of Maximo and Rachel Comey’s New York flagship store — is as inspired as the dishes, all of which are consumed at one lengthy communal wood table. The centerpiece is a commissioned mural of bright caricatures of animals and Mexican wrestling masks created by the Belgian graffiti artist Dave Derop (also known as Bue the Warrior) that lends just the right amount of levity to the experience.
Zacatecas 173, Colonia Roma, Mexico D.F., eat-lalo.com.
