By Elena Kadvany
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I am a perpetually hungry twenty-something journalist, born and raised in Menlo Park and currently working at the Palo Alto Weekly as education and youth staff writer. I graduated from USC with a major in Spanish and a minor in journalism. Though my first love is journalism, food is a close second. I am constantly on the lookout for new restaurants to try, building an ever-expanding "to eat" list. As a journalist, I'm always trolling news sources and social media websites with an eye for local food news, from restaurant openings and closings to emerging food trends. When I was a teenager growing up in Menlo Park, I always drove up to the city on weekends with the singular purpose of finding a better meal than I could at home. But in the past year or so, the Peninsula's food culture has been totally transformed, with many new restaurants opening and a continuous stream of San Francisco restaurants coming south to open Peninsula outposts. Don't navigate this food boom hungry and alone! Feed me your tips on new chefs and eats and together we'll share them with the broader community.
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Manuel Martinez, the chef-owner behind the popular LV Mar and La Viga restaurants in Redwood City, is opening a Palo Alto eatery inspired by the street food of Mexico City.
San Agus, short for his hometown of San Agustin in Mexico City, will open this spring at 115 Hamilton Ave., where
Teaquation & Tonic closed in November.
Carne asada, pollo and cochinita tacos from La Viga in Redwood City. Owner Manuel Martinez's newest restaurant will focus on Mexico City street food. Photo by Veronica Weber.
San Agus will serve antojitos, or street food, from al pastor tacos on fresh tortillas to griddled masa stuffed with chicharron and quesadillas with huitlacoche (a fungus that grows on corn, sometimes referred to as the Mexican truffle). The focus will be on food from Mexico City but other regions will be represented as well, including Oaxaca.
Craft cocktails will also give a nod to Mexican libations, such as tepache, a fermented drink made from pineapple peels, and pulque, a fermented agave drink. San Agus will serve its own version of pulque with mezcal, egg whites and guava. The cocktail menu will focus on but not be limited to tequila and mezcal, Martinez said.
San Agus will initially open for dinner and happy hour before adding brunch and lunch. Martinez hopes to open in April.
Martinez opened
La Viga in 2012 and LV Mar the year after.
