Casa Ora opened last month at 148 Meserole Street. From Eater:
A mother-son restaurant in Williamsburg is giving a dash of fine-dining panache to Venezuelan cuisine. Ivo Diaz (the NoMad), his mother Isbelis Diaz, and consulting chef Luis Herrera (Cosme, Alto) lead the all-Venezuelan kitchen crew at Casa Ora — with Isbelis preparing classics like arepas and empanadas and the others making less internationally famous dishes.
The goal at the restaurant, located at 148 Meserole Street between Manhattan and Graham avenues, is simple: “I wanted to turn my mom’s cooking into something a little more elevated,” says Ivo Diaz. While casual Venezuelan cafes and bakeries aren’t uncommon in New York — Diaz and his mother used to run one themselves — they haven’t found another upscale Venezuelan restaurant in the city…
Herrera’s dishes are upscale interpretations of traditional fare from his home of Caracas. There, the chef cooked at South American fine-dining temple Alto before fleeing the Maduro regime in 2014. At Casa Ora, Herrera serves pabellon ($26), Venezuela’s national dish of rice and refried beans with shredded beef — but kicked up a notch with brisket and plated with the meat intact, though cooked until tender enough for diners to shred it themselves.
Casa Ora
casaoranyc.com
148 Meserole Street
Brooklyn, NY — 11206
(718) 223-3116
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