Inside Silver Lake's Lush New Mexican Seafood Hideaway

Farley Elliott is the Senior Editor at Eater LA and the author of Los Angeles Street Food: A History From Tamaleros to Taco Trucks. He covers restaurants in every form, from breaking news to the culture, people, and history that surrounds LA's dining landscape.

Mexico City chef Maycoll Calderon is here. The well-known Venezuelan is about to open Tintorera in Silver Lake, an almost all-outdoor Mexican seafood bonanza that comes complete with string lights, rustic wood tables and chairs, and a slew of high-end cocktails.

Tintorera is meant to be a complement restaurant to Calderon’s own Huset, an exceedingly popular Mexico City meat-focused eatery in the hip La Roma district. With his new American outlet, Calderon promises ceviches, wood-grilled fish, and plenty of other preparations; just don’t expect any fried fish tacos on the opening menu. Much like Diego Hernandez’s Verlaine, Ray Garcia’s Broken Spanish, or Daniel Godinez’s Maestro in Pasadena, the idea is to push the Mexican food scene forward a bit, beyond tacos and burritos (at least at first) and into something bigger.

As for the Walter Meyenberg-designed space itself, expect room for 100 diners out on the flagstone patio every night. The big, open area is ringed with greenery and falls beneath a gorgeous new mural along one tall brick wall, with the rest of the available dining space coming inside a small L-shaped room. The former Cowboys & Turbans dining room has been completely repurposed into a low-lit bar with cocktails from young Mexico City bartender David Mora. Tintorera opens for limited service tomorrow night, with dinner hours only to start.

Tintorera
2815 Sunset Blvd.
Los Angeles, CA