Christian Nuñez, owner of Buena Vista Restaurant & Bar in New York City, was raised in a restaurant family, but he swore he would never get into the business himself. All that changed when he was recruited at a Penn State college career fair by Chipotle Mexican Grill to become a manager in training.
He took his Chipotle experience home to his father’s restaurant, helping to turn it around into a profitable enterprise. He changed the name, introduced a Latino happy hour, and upgraded the venue.
But in 2018, Nuñez wanted a place of his own with a more upscale Euro-Latin menu and sophisticated cocktails. That was the debut of the first Buena Vista Restaurant & Bar in the Hell’s Kitchen neighborhood of Manhattan. This year, he opened two more locations within a few months of each other — one in the East Village and the other in Murray Hill. A gutsy move to be sure, but Nuñez has the ambition to grow Buena Vista into a larger restaurant brand. Each location shares his vision but is slightly different, geared to its particular neighborhood through its design, ambiance, and menu mix.
Listen as Nuñez shares how he differentiates the menu with innovative takes on Spanish and Latin cuisine, how he elevates his restaurants with artistic touches, and hints at his future plans for Buena Vista.
Menu Talk is a collaboration between Restaurant Business Senior Menu Editor Pat Cobe and Bret Thorn, senior food & beverage editor of Nation’s Restaurant News. You can subscribe to it wherever you listen to podcasts.
