OUR ESSENTIAL GUIDE TO THE BOROUGH OF KINGS
COURIER LIFE, FEBRUARY 19-25, 2021 29
BY BEN VERDE
When Atlantic Avenue bistro Bacchus
began a temporary shutdown in
November due to COVID and left their
staff out of work, the resourceful employees
hatched an idea — they opened
their own pop-up restaurant in the
shuttered eatery.
“It all started because of
the pandemic,” said Bacchus’
executive chef, Sixto Fuentes.
Bruno Laclide, who opened
Bacchus over a decade ago,
fi rst attempted to remain open
through the duration of the
pandemic, but quickly found
that capacity limits on city
eateries made that hope impossible
— so he closed up,
hoping to return when the virus
subsided.
“A restaurant like Bacchus is too
big to be able to sustain 25 percent,”
Laclide said.
But, with many of Bacchus’s kitchen
and fl oor staff unable to receive unemployment
benefi ts, Fuentes and his
fellow enterprising food maestros decided
they’d give it a shot — concocting
the plan to open a Mexican restaurant
out of the hibernating Bacchus,
which Laclide is letting his staff use
rent-free, provided they pay the gas
and electric bills.
On top of the sorely-needed income,
the new food crew have also welcomed
the cherished chance to serve up
dishes that looked more like what they
cooked at home.
For Fuentes, it also offered a second
chance at owning a business — as,
before coming to Bacchus, he’d run a
restaurant in Bay Ridge for two years,
DINING
before it folded. Landing on the name
“El Zason,” which translated to “The
Seasoning” in English, Fuentes’s wife
Anastacia and his sous chef Jesús Fernandez
crafted a menu inspired by
their respective Oaxacan and Pueblan
roots.
“Jesús is from Oaxaca, my wife
is from Puebla, and they really connected
together,” Fuentes said.
The result is a menu that emphasizes
simplicity without sacrifi cing
fl avor — as seen in their guacamole,
which is made only with fresh avocados,
garlic, onions, cilantro, and jalapeños.
“That’s the real Mexican guacamole
for us,” Fuentes said.
When the team launched El Zason
shortly before Christmas, they went
three days without a single order.
Soon, however, word started to spread
through Boerum Hill from impressed
patrons and social media posts — and
orders began rolling in.
The restaurant now does a swift
takeout business, and just opened the
wine bar of Bacchus for indoor dining.
Now Fuentes says they are looking
optimistically to the future with hopes
of turning El Zason into a permanent
restaurant somewhere in the neighborhood.
“El Zason has a future,”
Fuentes said. “For us to stay a
neighbor is very important…
we’re going to try to fi nd a
little spot somewhere in the
neighborhood, no more than
one mile from here.”
The birth of El Zason has been an
unexpected bright spot during the
pandemic for the restaurant workers,
a time that has been marked by ruin
for New York’s restaurants.
But whatever the future holds for
their pandemic-induced project, Fuentes
simply lauded the unexpected
bright spot for him and his fellow restaurant
workers.
“In the darkness, we found the
light,” Fuentes said.
Fresh start
Kitchen workers launch Mexican eatery
out of hibernating Boerum Hill bistro
El Zason 411 Atlantic Ave. near Bond
Street in Boerum Hill, (718) 683-2217,
elzasonnyc.com Weekdays 11 am – 10
pm; Weekends 12 pm – 9 pm.
WELL SEASONED: (Clockwise from
above) Sixto Fuentes, the executive
chef at Bacchus for 10 years.
Chiles en nogada. Churros.
Photos by Ben Verde
/elzasonnyc.com