Overview

Mr. Blanco’s is my third restaurant concept, scheduled to open in 2020 in Mexico City. It’s my second quick service restaurant, and my first to be open 24/7. The quick service concept focuses on classic American sliders and made-to-order donuts. The small menu consisted of one burger, one donut, tater tots, and a single flavor of a thick milkshake we’re called a “Maltespeca” (a portmanteau for thick (especa) and milkshake (malteada)).

This is also my first time opening a restaurant in operational partnership with another restaurant group. In this case I’ve been lucky to work with Grupo Patagonia, a large hospitality group in Mexico City with 11 concepts (now 12) spread over 21 restaurants.

History & Naming

After Upton Sinclair wrote The Jungle, ground beef consumption plummeted to an all time low in The States. To combat this, the first ever fast food chain pulled from hospital design, making their spaces feel pure, clean, palatial, and orderly. They called their concept White Castle. The marketing worked, and throughout the 1920’s and 1930’s a number of copy cat restaurants opened with names like White Manna, White Rose System, White’s Diner, White Towers, and more! They all focused on cleanliness and efficiency, serving mini-burgers (now called Sliders) from their small shops.

Wanting to honor those traditions, I knew that White would need to be in the name. But of course that would needed to be adapted for my market. So I went with Blanco. And because so many famous fast food chains are headed up by a mascot I thought to call it Señor Blanco’s. Finally in an attempt to pay a wink toward its roots north of the border, I subbed the Señor for a Mr. – and Mr. Blanco’s was born.

Branding

I brought on the team from Pesca al Curricán to work with me on the branding of Mr. Blanco’s. Given that the concept was directly informed by the influx of slider shops in 20’s and 30’s, we tried to stick with typefaces that would have been available at that time. We also worked to come up with a unique campaign around the premise that our burgers couldn’t be customized and that we’d be open 24/7.

Location

Mr. Blanco’s – Opening Soon
Río Tigris 148
Colonia Cuahtémoc
06500 Mexico City, CDMX

Store Design

Matthew Kennedy of MKTA and I designed the first Mr. Blanco’s store. The small, always-open shop only features a protruding griddle that lands just inches from the sidewalk, creating space for guests to huddle around the food prep area while they mainline their burgers and tots into the wee-hours of the night. The space also features a duplicate kitchen in the back, allowing us to fulfill delivery options without having to interrupt the in-restaurant dining experience.

Aesthetically, the space is decked out in white handcrafted Mexican tile, with all fixtures and furniture custom fabricated in metal, and then hand-painted white to reference the Puestos (street food stands) located all over the city. A custom light fixture was spans the center of the ceiling, and is capable of changing to every color imaginable, triggered by special events in the restaurant (like birthdays!)

Overview

Delaney Chicken was my second restaurant concept. With it, I departed from the full-service model, and instead developed a quick service concept focused on fried chicken sandwiches. The small menu consisted of four sandwich options, each made with a boneless, skinless chicken thigh that got brined overnight, and fried with a special battering process. This resulted in a hybrid texture that combined the flavors of spicy southern fried chicken, with the lightness of tempura. The restaurant also served French fries, a creamy coleslaw, and homemade drinks.

Branding

Past Locations

Store Design & Renderings

I art directed the design of Delaney Chicken, and drew my inspiration from the pre-fabricated interior paneling of butcher shops and diners of the 1950’s. These elements came through in black varnished headboard wasincoting, powder coated metal panels made to look like antique porcelain steel, and period specific lighting. Our team also wore all white uniforms with black bowties, which underscored the theme.

Press for Delaney Chicken

BrisketTown

Delaney Barbecue was my first restaurant brand, and BrisketTown the first restaurant. It opened as a small, counter-service barbecue restaurant on the South Side of Williamsburg, Brooklyn. The restaurant focused exclusively on the barbecue of Central Texas, and at its time was the only barbecue restaurant in NYC to cook meat outdoors, entirely using hardwood. This distinction allowed us to produce notably different barbecue than the NY had seen for a while, and brought us a good amount of visibility which resulted in numerous awards, lines out the door, and selling out of food on a nightly basis.

Over time, the restaurant evolved, and we remodeled to move into a table-service model. With this change, the restaurant’s menu increased to include appetizers, brunch, dessert, and robust natural wine program.

SmokeLine

Shortly after the opening of BrisketTown, Delaney Barbecue was invited to start vending within New York’s beautiful High Line park in Chelsea. Excited about the opportunity, we jumped on it, building out a beautiful cart made from reclaimed redwood from water towers, and a whole new sandwich focused menu. The location was later moved to Jersey City, NJ where it operated for a season.

Branding

Past Locations

Store Design

BrisketTown was designed by Home Studios of Brooklyn, NY, and was built by Precision Innovations. The cozy 34 seat restaurant’s design influences were a mix of elements found in Texas and Brooklyn. The floors were made of reclaimed lumber found in a church, the walls covered in wainscoting made old redwood salvaged from rooftop water tanks, and the chairs a signature red. The team put a tremendous amount of work into every detail, down to the door handles, which were made from bleached beef rib bones that one of our first employees whitened himself!

Dreams of Brisket

Brisketlab was the solution to a problem: I needed brisket. Specifically, I needed the type of brisket that I had fallen in love with in Texas. At the time, I couldn’t find any of it in NYC. So I set out on a mission to create it myself, an effort which would lead me to opening my first restaurant - BrisketTown. To accomplish this goal I headed to Austin, TX where I got my hands on a 18’ offset smoker, which I hauled up to NYC along with a truck full of wood and the help of a friend. Without any legitimate plan or place to cook, I popped the smoker along the side of my family’s home and set out to find hungry carnivores.

The Labs

With unending thanks to Hunter Augeri, Angela Coronel, and Miko Mercer we were able to put together a total of 33 ‘labs’ in just 60 days! A lab was essentially a pop-up food party where folks that had pre-purchased brisket would show up redeem a portion of what they had purchased. To attend, people would log into a website we built which would allow them to manage their ‘meat bank account’ and RSVP for the labs. When they arrived, they claimed their smoked brisket, helped themselves to sides, and enjoyed live music from a number of local hot jazz and western swing bands. We’d host the events wherever we could find free space, which meant they took place on rooftops, undeveloped warehouses, and even in a cemetery! All in, we had over 2,000 attendees. It was a wild summer.

Marketing Event:
Squarespace @ SXSW 

What: I developed and executed the promotional efforts for Squarespace at the South by Southwest Festival.
Where: Austin, TX
When: 2011 & 2012

Rolling Up

In 2011 everyone was going crazy over food trucks. I was no exception. I was in the middle of producing my first web show, VendrTV, which was about the best street food in the nation. Because of this, Squarespace approached me and asked if I’d be interested in curating the menu for their promotional activation at the 2011 South by Southwest Music and Technology festival in Austin, TX. They were about to launch the new version of their website platfom (which I’m still using on this site!) and wanted to make a big splash. They thought a food truck filled with the best food in Austin, TX would be an amazing way to generate buzz.

I was excited about the opportunity, and within no time, the planning of a menu evolved into handling nearly every element of the festival

Video Series: VendrTV

What: Web Video Series about the best street food in the USA
Where: All Across the USA
When: 2009 - 2011

Why Street Food?

When I was in college in Philadelphia in the early 2000’s, street vending was rarely more than a curbside hot dog or cheesesteak. Vendors competed one on one, with largely the same fare cart to cart. To graduate art school, I decided to focus my thesis on how design could change the viability of a curbside entrepreneur. Simultaneously, I was inspired by folks like Ze Frank, RSS technology, and podcasting. I wanted to be in that club. I also felt that there was no reason that food programming on the web couldn’t match the quality of what we saw on TV. Of course, today it does. But in 2009, when I started making web videos, it was a far cry from what we’re seeing on YouTube today. So, I rallied a few buddies from college and childhood, and decided to create a show about the industry I now knew a ton about. The timing was good, because little did I know the street food scene was about to explode.

Press

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