Bäco Mercat wasn’t the first Josef Centeno restaurant I fell in love with (that’s Lot 1), though it’s probably the one I’ve missed most — a low-key hangout rooted in puffy, pita-adjacent flatbread surrounding all manner of flavorful fillings. Centeno’s revived it (sort of), along with the more recently closed Tex-Mex favorite, Bar Ama, and his short-lived experimental Takoria at Le DräQ in Downtown Los Angeles. Centeno describes his new place as a “three-headed beast.” The metaphor works in that you’re not quite sure which beast to focus on at any given time; in the end, it doesn’t really matter because they’ve all got teeth.
Casual and little confused: the sign for Bar Ama still glows in the corner and there’s no aesthetic point of view emanating from the space itself. None of the diverse crowd of diners seems to care, whether spread across a long banquette or bellied up to the bar.
This is for Centeno superfans who want a little dose of nostalgia with their goat cheese-stuffed dates and quesoritto.
Order a standalone piece of cheese-stuffed bäco bread on the side for the ultimate Bar Ama queso dipper.