Bass ceviche ($17) gets a jolt of flavor from golden raisin leche de tigre, pickled shallot, cancha and baby sweet potato.
When Stephanie Izard decided to open a Peruvian restaurant atop The Hoxton hotel, she found her jumping-off point in ceviche. Within Cabra, fittingly, a six-seat ceviche bar gives top billing to the Peruvian version of the raw seafood dish. Larger cuts of fish marinate in a citrus-based leche de tigre, which greets the palate with an initial hit of lime before mellowing out with the natural salinity of the fish. “One thing that really stuck with me,” says Izard, “was the combination of bright, light flavors like citrus paired with rich ingredients like cheese or mayonnaise in unexpected ways. It creates something truly tasty.” Following a trip to Peru earlier this year, the Top Chef winner—whose fourth restaurant upholds the goat moniker that began with Girl & the Goat, this time in Spanish—hopes to keep diners guessing with ingredients even the most well-seasoned epicureans have yet to try, like lucuma. A superfruit that tastes like raw sweet potato with notes of caramel, lucuma is known for healing topical wounds—but when mixed with Cabra’s ice cream, it offers a whole new kind of healing. 200 N. Green St., 312.761.1717
Photography by: Jason Robert Scott
