Suyo Gastrofusion Serves Up A Feast For All The Senses
Before opening the doors to Suyo Gastrofusion, the new and exciting Peruvian-Asian restaurant, bar and lounge on West 170th Street in the Highbridge section of the Bronx, a visitor first encounters a “Tats Cru” mural. Establishing the tone and feel of the establishment, the mural honors the people, culture, and history of the Bronx while also floating its viewer over clouds and across billowing seas into uncharted territory. Simultaneously realistic and futuristic, this mural announces to Suyo’s patrons, “Get ready, you’re about to embark on an adventure—familiar, comforting, yet extraordinary. This is an experience made just for you.”
Everything about Suyo, meaning yours in Spanish, has been designed with attention to detail and a core principle of gratitude for the Bronx and its people. Bronx businessman Nelson Liriano and his ownership team knew they wanted to reciprocate the love they had received from their customers over the years and Suyo is the culmination of that desire.
“We wanted to open something unique to the Bronx and different from everywhere else, where the dinner is exquisite, the environment is inviting and where the drinks exceed their expectations. Don’t get me wrong: Everything is about business, but Suyo is more about passion than it is about dollars,” says Nelson.
Housed inside a completely gutted and renovated warehouse, the restaurant is a sensory experience—aesthetically exciting, aromatically pleasing and innovatively flavorful. Facing the two-story-high, mirrored stacks of top-shelf liquor, backlit by alternating pastel-hued lights, the spacious bar is the centerpiece of the multi-leveled open main floor. Mimicking librarians, the bartenders climb a sliding ladder to reach the bottles they need to mix the signature cocktails created by mixologist Felix Salazar.
The Smoked Old Fashioned, served in a wide glass with a chunky block ice cube and an island-shaped sliver of citrus rind clinging to its side, offers a sip of woodsy goodness. Presented in a terrine, the concoction of smoke and liquid is swirled together before the server unclasps the lid. Once poured, the sweet aroma of hickory suffuses the air with its lingering scent. This drink exemplifies Suyo’s spirit or “synergy,” as Nelson calls it.
While getting past the bar may be difficult, the Suyo experience is centered upon the inventive menu designed and created by Executive Chef Andres Sen Sang. Chef Andy offers a remarkable array of recognizable dishes reimagined with flavor profiles incorporating spices and tastes from Asia and South America. A food artist, Chef Andy presents his plates to please the eye as well as the palate. “Many times I can’t fall asleep as I think about creating new recipes combining the colors, textures, flavors, and spices of these two continents,” he says.
He draws on his knowledge of Korean cuisine to serve glazed chicken wings over napa cabbage kimchi sticky with ginger, scallion, garlicky goodness. Another offering, charred octopus, is a culinary delight, each bite complex and distinctive. Served with Peruvian purple potato, chopped chorizo, black olive and topped with quinoa, this dish combines the elements of earth, sea, and air as it balances the tender, ethereal octopus with the toasty crunchiness of the quinoa, the subtle strength of the chorizo and the smooth softness of the purple potato.
“I discovered quinoa while working as head chef of a vegan, gluten-free restaurant in midtown and now incorporate it into many of my dishes,” says the chef.
Having worked in every level of the food industry and numerous types of restaurants, Chef Andy learned his craft in high-powered midtown kitchens and honed it as a Grand Diplome recipient from the International Culinary Center. Tireless and enthusiastic, Chef Andy brings an unparalleled level of brilliance to the Suyo dining experience. Other small plates include Berkshire pork belly glazed with soy sauce and served with pickled watermelon; Thai chicken empanadas, a South American/Thai fusion; and Cuban pork potstickers in a garlic-soy dipping sauce. Entrées range from Poblano chile relleno that substitutes quinoa for the usual rice to the traditional Angus New York strip steak au jus with a watercress salad. Chef Andy’s menu, like his flavors and tastes, traverses land and sea and fuses continents, paying homage to his own cultural heritage as well as to all of his hard-earned accumulated knowledge.
Paying homage is a definite theme of Suyo. As Nelson points out, “Everything in Suyo is a product of intentional design.” Interior designer Michel Ramirez captured the essence of Suyo’s synergy by combining wood and metal with open space and soft fabric wall coverings, juxtaposing heavy solidity with airy lightness. One feels grounded and uplifted here, feels the solidness of Bronx streets and the aspiration of Bronxites, all at once.
In the lowest-level eating area is a ceiling made from the wood of repurposed pallets that once strained under the weight of heavy sacks of food and now rest peacefully above the heads of the diners. The butcher-block tables with their heavy metal bases—industrial chic, as Nelson calls it—situates visitors in Suyo’s established Bronx roots. Hanging above the mid-level, a lamp with multiple trumpet slides pointing in several directions and with bright bulbs ensconced in its several bells, brings to mind Dizzy Gillespie’s famous bent horn and his own Latin/jazz fusion collaborations with Bronx-based musicians such as Machito, and points toward the upper piano bar/dining area. A long walkway, christened “The Highbridge,” connects the piano bar with the VIP lounge, a smaller intimate space for friends to gather, and completes Suyo’s deliberate acknowledgments to its home and neighbors.
In addition to the exterior Tats Cru mural, Suyo presents large, bold and colorful artwork at every turn. A native chief, crowned and robed, smiles serenely over the proceedings from his perch alongside the VIP lounge and a graffiti-like representation of Rosie the Riveter beckons visitors to the bathrooms below. Train lines, D and 4, serve as the restroom delineators on the subterranean level of the restaurant. Next to the bar, a cutout wall in the shape of a huge teddy bear stuffed with the used spray paint cans of the artists serves as a patron-inspired photo booth. “It just happened,” Nelson says with a smile. “Every night it’s the place to take pictures.”
Everything about Suyo has been tastefully designed and aimed towards making every visit a unique experience.
Whether mesmerizing patrons with its tantalizing bar or with a new edible creation by Chef Andy, Suyo is fated to become a destination that will not only draw from the Bronx, but will entice folks everywhere to head uptown. “Suyo is about a passion and love for the Bronx and giving something to the people of the Bronx they can be proud of. The biggest compliment we get is ‘Thank you for opening a place like this in the Bronx. For us,’” Nelson adds. “At the end of the day, Suyo was built, developed and nourished from a passion for the Bronx. It’s more than a business. It’s about love. It belongs to the Bronx. Simplemente Suyo.”
1401 Plaza Dr, Bronx, New York
