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“El Bocadito-- CLOSED”

Occasion:	Cuisine:	Area:	Cost:	Rating:
Night Out	Latin/Mexican	Lower East Side	Cheap Eats	Good

Okay people, let me ask you this: How many of you reading this review are nurturing a dream? Really. Be honest. How many of you have a dream somewhere tucked back in the dusty recesses of your heart—a little voice that occasionally gets the courage to speak up and say, “Um, excuse me, I know you don’t like it when I mention this, but what about that wine shop? Or, You need to launch your own clothing line? Or, You should have an art gallery.” Well, Holly Grabelle, the owner of the newly opened El Bocadito, had a little voice inside her heart too. It was a voice that told her: “I don’t know what you should be doing, but it ain’t this.” She was in her 30s, living in Chicago, working in financial services and not feeling very fulfilled. So she switched careers and took a gig in advertising. That didn’t feel right either. And so she did what we all have dreamed of once or twice (or one hundred times) in our life. She quit her job, and took a 12-month hiatus and traveled around Africa and Asia, where she thought about what in this life would make her happy. Food was her answer. She returned to the states, moved to New York City and after a brief stint in restaurant PR, started her own cupcake business, a successful venture that sadly went south after 9/11. Next she joined the restaurant world as the general manager of Dano, a bistro on lower Fifth Avenue. But her eye was on a place of her own, and inspiration struck one afternoon at a Chelsea gallery displaying Mexican street graphics exhibit. She loved the playful, hip style and the feel the characters. And she thought of the word “El Bocadito,” which means “a little taste of something.” And then it all came together. “I loved Mexican street food, and I was familiar with the music from working in kitchens,” she told me one afternoon. “I knew then that I would open an urban Mexican streetfood joint that celebrated the art, food, and music of Mexico City.” After an intensive eating adventure in Mexico City, she secured an SBA loan, signed a lease for a tiny nook of a space on an up and coming block of Orchard Street, and hired a graphic artist to recreate a Mexican character as her mascot—a jolly, fat, pink pig carrying a plate of food—just like the character that had inspired her in the Chelsea gallery.Just months after her 40th birthday, she opened the doors to her very own place—El Bocad ... [more, click below]

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Posted: March 5, 2006

Other restaurants in Lower East Side :
+ Mojo   + WD-50   + Schiller's Liquor Bar   + Azul Bistro   + Barrio Chino   + 71 Clinton Fresh Food-- Closed   + Little Giant   + Kuma Inn   + Falai   + The Stanton Social   + The Tides   + Thor   + The Orchard   + El Bocadito-- CLOSED   + Bondi Road   + Rayuela   + Suba   + Bun (boone)   + Sorella   + The Fat Hippo   + Pulino's   

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