Sanctuaria
Agave's website says "temporarily closed for renovations and a menu redesign" and that's true...except it won't be Agave anymore.
On October 31, Dr. Gurpreet Padda, partner Amy Grimes (the financial and creative backbone behind Cafe Ventana and Chuy Arzola's) and Chefs Chris Lee and Anthony Collida will raise the curtain on Sanctuaria, a new concept restaurant that has "wild tapas" as its tagline. If forced to elaborate, I'd call it "atypical Latino small plates," things like pork posole and Cabrales cigars with sherry sauce.But I will concede that "wild tapas" is catchy.
Padda realizes "the Grove is edgy and raw, and that's what Sanctuaria will be," describing the interior finishes. On the walls will be 17th and 18th century Latino artifacts, some of them bawdy, many of them Christian (hence the name Sanctuaria), along with compatible modern pieces custom-made for the space, like a 3-D metal tree on the back bar.
The group is planning more restaurants, all with different themes (and not all of them in the Grove/Midtown area). We'll dole out details as they unfold. -- George Mahe
(If you're wondering what happened to Coby Arzola, he left Agave to focus on something well, more predictable: management of Chuy Arzola's, the namesake restaurant recently transplanted into the thirsty, student-dense area near SLU. Chuy's was jammin' my last time in...and that was before the students got back from summer break.)
