Jorge Guzman and his team from The Black Ant and Ofrenda opened their first non-Mexican project this week over in the West Village. The white-washed and airy Gardenia is sort of Latin meets Mediterranean both on the menu and in design. There are hand-painted tiles and a flower filled mural behind the bar, but otherwise the space is very white. There's also a bonus skylight in the back and some plants hanging around that makes it feel rather summery.
Black Ant chef Mario Hernandez and his chef de cuisine Emmanuel Chavez are starting things off at Gardenia with a seafood-focused menu that hops around the globe from Mexico to Greece to Italy and Spain, with dishes like boquerones with gigante beans and hard-boiled eggs, plus a few masa-based dishes. Don't expect any bugs here. Hernandez has left the ants and the grasshoppers across town.
