{"id":9534,"date":"2025-10-20T16:15:10","date_gmt":"2025-10-20T16:15:10","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ny\/9534\/"},"modified":"2025-10-20T16:15:10","modified_gmt":"2025-10-20T16:15:10","slug":"chef-maycoll-talks-the-opening-of-his-first-restaurant-in-new-york-city-cuna","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ny\/9534\/","title":{"rendered":"Chef Maycoll talks the opening of his first restaurant in New York City, Cuna"},"content":{"rendered":"

Chef Maycoll Calder\u00f3n has opened up his first restaurant taking inspirations and influences from M\u00e9rida, Mexico here in New York. Located in the East Village at The Standard, people can expect the best out of what M\u00e9rida has to offer to the world.<\/p>\n

After the success of his pop-up earlier this year in New York, Huset, his menu at Cuna expresses the different sides of M\u00e9rida, and he explained further about his motivations for deciding on M\u00e9rida as the staple place his dishes would be coming from.<\/p>\n

\u201cM\u00e9rida has beautiful ingredients. I brought many of those ingredients to Cuna, like the octopus. There\u2019s very few regions in the where you can fish octopus, or that grills octopus,\u201d Chef Calder\u00f3n discussed.<\/p>\n

One of the few dishes that includes octopus has it grilled and served with black beans, mole, plantain, cilantro, and crema. Chef Calder\u00f3n also commented that Cuna is more seafood-oriented, this is shown within his wide variety of fish that is offered between the mains and starters.\u00a0<\/p>\n

While he can\u2019t travel to Yucatan, which is the state where M\u00e9rida resides in, to grab their delicious fish, he emphasizes that he\u2019ll be using the community around him to gain access to the seafood. He also emphasized the inclusion of spice in his dishes,\u00a0 adding that hint of a kick when people sit down and try, for example, the Corn Fritters, which has a touch of spiciness from the cheese that doesn\u2019t overpower the other flavors happening.<\/p>\n

\"Cuna<\/a>Cuna has indoor and outdoor seating options.Photo: Ernesto Roman<\/p>\n

\u201cWe love chile habanero in New York. We love spice,\u201d he starts off. \u201cEverything related to chiles we\u2019ve tried to include on our menu. It\u2019s not too crazy, but it makes you salivate and smile, and then immediately want a drink.\u201d<\/p>\n

Spice and citrus work as a team throughout many of the dishes at Cuna. Citrus, as the Chef describes, is one of the most important flavors for any dish in Yucatan. Customers can get a glimpse of that taste with one of the most delectable starters on the menu, the sea bass ceviche.<\/p>\n

Sea-bass ceviche includes lime, avocado, ginger, radish, celery, and cilantro, which all work in unison to create that sour taste that hits you up front before becoming a savory snack that you won\u2019t put down.<\/p>\n

For a first-time restaurant owner, he hit the ball out of the park with star dishes, and he explains that when it came to building Cuna to what he has now, the kitchen side of things were easiest.<\/p>\n

\u201cI have that side of things controlled,\u201d he starts off. \u201cWhat I don\u2019t have control over is the team. I\u2019m all about creating solid teams. I can\u2019t do it all. Hospitality for me is essential, in all aspects of the restaurant.\u201d<\/p>\n

Chef Caler\u00f3n wants the love and effort his team puts into the kitchen to translate to the dining experience, when customers get their food and feel the energy of hard work and quality over fast service, leaving customers unsatisfied.<\/p>\n

\"An<\/a>An array of Cuna\u2019s food offerings.Photo: Sidney Bensimon<\/p>\n

\u201cI think that\u2019s the hardest part of creating a restaurant honestly, because sure, you can have the idea of a restaurant, but to create a solid team to execute the vision is the hardest part,\u201d he discussed.<\/p>\n

Moving outside the kitchen, he has a wonderful person who helps him with the aesthetic and design of not only Cuna, but collaborates on many of his projects, his wife Marifer Dur\u00e1n.<\/p>\n

\u201cIt\u2019s all about her vision nowadays. All the designing part with architects, the lighting, and the sound creates the dining experience. I think we make a great team,\u201d he stated.<\/p>\n

The love of M\u00e9rida can be felt no matter where you are at the restaurant. The bars include soft lighting and gorgeous succulents can be found throughout the restaurant with wooden accents that reflect the restaurant\u2019s origin.<\/p>\n

With the many trips he and his wife take together to visit restaurants and taste amazing ingredients around the world, the duo tries to incorporate their favorite aspects into their own concepts.\n<\/p>\n

\u201cShe\u2019s a key component to all our projects. She really takes care of the customer behind the scenes and makes sure they\u2019re having the dining experience from start to finish. Not even just at the restaurant, but with reservations, following up, etc. She\u2019s extremely good at it and she really helps us make that happen,\u201d Chef Calder\u00f3n finishes off.<\/p>\n

\"Cuna's<\/a>Cuna\u2019s Tostada. Photo: Sidney Bensimon<\/p>\n

With both being from different places (Calder\u00f3n from Venezuela and Dur\u00e1n from Mexico), he discussed a little about his own flares and twist that he adds to M\u00e9rida dishes and on his menu.<\/p>\n

\u201cThere\u2019s always rice on my menus. As a kid, I grew up eating rice, and I think that every Latin American family, that\u2019s one of the key ingredients. I\u2019m also very tropical, so using mango and pineapple, fruits that I have eaten since I was little. Of course black beans, but all these things remind me of home and where I grew up,\u201d he explained.<\/p>\n

All his experiences from Venezuela, Mexico, and the other seven countries he lived in before combines within Cuna and a city known for never sleeping, to which he describes very proudly, as a dream come true.<\/p>\n

\u201cFor me, I always wanted my own restaurant first, and I love New York. Part of my personality belongs here. So when I left, I always thought that maybe when and if I come back, I want to have my own place.\u201d<\/p>\n

Though Cuna is still in its beginning phases as a restaurant, Chef Calerd\u00f3n told us that there are still more dishes yet to come later on in the season.\n<\/p>\n

\u201cMost of them [dishes] already have recipes, but they\u2019ll be coming. Some of the ingredients I can\u2019t find right now. But when summer comes next year, those dishes will be on the menu for people to enjoy.\u201d<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"Chef Maycoll Calder\u00f3n has opened up his first restaurant taking inspirations and influences from M\u00e9rida, Mexico here in…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":9535,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[36],"tags":[98,100,99,8007,1808,8008,8009,75,9,24,63,1302],"class_list":{"0":"post-9534","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","5":"has-post-thumbnail","7":"category-brooklyn","8":"tag-brooklyn","9":"tag-brooklyn-headlines","10":"tag-brooklyn-news","11":"tag-chef-maycoll-calderu00f3n","12":"tag-cuna","13":"tag-eat","14":"tag-eat-and-drink","15":"tag-manhattan","16":"tag-new-york","17":"tag-new-york-city","18":"tag-nyc","19":"tag-restaurant"},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ny\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/9534","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ny\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ny\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ny\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ny\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=9534"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ny\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/9534\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ny\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/9535"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ny\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=9534"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ny\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=9534"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ny\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=9534"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}