The Vino Park in Santa Terra behind Oystera on Benito Juarez in Todos Santos has embarked on a new strategy – each month to invite top chefs from around the country to host their restaurant for two weeks at Vino Park. The first pop-up hosts are Chef Alfredo Villanueva from Villa Torel and Martin Sitten and Mel Valdez from LOCA Bar, both from Ensenada and the Valle de Guadalupe. Chef Alfredo has had restaurants throughout Mexico and is know for his authentic cantina style of food and his restaurant in Ensenada is currently one of Latin America’s Top 50 Restaurants. Martin Sitten is a mixologist and consultant to some of the vineyards in Valle de Guadalupe and has created some special cocktails for the pop-up and selected special wines to enhance the dishes being prepared by Chef Alfredo.

I was lucky to be introduced to Chef Alfredo and Martin by Abe Juarez, the CEO of Santa Terra, who created this vision. As a result, rather than just selecting one or two of the items from the special pop-up menu, Chef Alfredo created a special tasting menu for me to allow me to sample smaller portions of several things from the menu. And, Martin matched those with cocktails and wine wine (given my allergy to reds) that would enhance my overall experience.

While we chatted, the experience started off with a special cocktail that Loca Bar created for this experience – Santa Terra. This mezcal cocktail used guava leaves grown in Santa Terra, which were infused with mezcal and then mixed with white vermouth and coconut milk. The result is a light punch with the flavor of coconut lingering on the tongue. Chef Alfredo served thin tortilla pieces that had been cooked in the wood-burning oven so they were like thin pita shells served with a very tasty chorizo and cauliflower paste. A great start to the evening. Martin then asked how adventurous I was and offered their special Martini de Costa, created with a special reposado tequila, vermouth and chile pasilla mixe liqueur. Being adventurous was because the special liqueur adds a chili flavor to the martini than lingers in the mouth on top of the reposado tequila.

Before the next tasting items came out, Martin explained how Chef Alfredo loves to serve several items tapa style to the table, whether at the restaurant or at home for people to share. So the next selections included the bluefin tuna tartar, which had be aged for five days on a base of rhubarb, tahini, onions and a middle eastern dip called labneh made with a yoghurt base. The tuna was served with large tortilla style chips. The combination of flavors was truly astounding. I could have easily devoured a very large plate of this. It was paired with pickled mussels and sourdough bread. At this point, Martin started to introduce me to white wines from the Valle de Guadalupe. The four wines – La Poubelle Sauvignon Blanc 2022, Brisado Columbard 2023, Santo Tomas Chardonnay 2022 and a Pierda de Sol Grenache 2022 – each with its own flavor.

The next two small appetizer dishes to be served were half of a large roasted carrot with duck juice and brown butter and grilled eggplant again with labneh and small pieces of fish. The carrot was offered with more sourdough bread and the eggplant with small triangles of pita and both had dabs of an interesting heavy cream. Chef Alfredo was pairing items to provide a contrast of different flavors on the table at the same time.

The final dinner item (before dessert) was one of the four items on the main course menu – striped sea bass with capers, jazmin rice and cherry tomatoes. The crusty skin on the top of the sea bass was delicious, as was each of the items included in this dish.