A trip to the Mayan city of Tulum would be a lengthy trip for most New Yorkers, seeing that it rests on the southern tip of Mexico, but fortunately, a nice little piece of it available right in downtown Manhattan. GITANO’s Garden of Love, a tropical urban paradise in the heart of SoHo, re-opened for the season May 1st and has proven to be a riveting success.
This summer GITANO Garden of Love introduced an innovative, highly curated menu concept created by five of the world’s most impressive international chefs, inspired and connected by their shared love of Mexico and the Yucatán.
Each chef contributes a ceviche and taco to the menu – creating one of the most diverse and unique offerings in New York. The Chefs collaborate with the GITANO culinary team headed by Executive Chef and Partner Yvan Lemoine.
This week, native Southern Californian and head chef of Arca Tulum, Chef Jose Luis Hinostroza, brings Tulum to New York with his sea urchin ceviche & prawn tacos. He is joined by co-Founder of Noma, a two Michelin star restaurant and pioneer of new Nordic cuisine, Chef Mads Refslund, who adds a green coconut ceviche and farmed duck eggs to the menu.
The restaurant originally opened last summer but was temporarily closed due to health-code violations. “We were bringing in city water and electricity to the sight which ran a lot of problems,” explains owner James Gardner. “We had to be much more cautious on the re-open, but we managed to get a grade A.”
An outdoor area, the GITANO Garden of Love immediately welcomes guests to soak in the atmosphere, even on cloudy days. The space, spanning an entire city block, features a meditation pool with waterfall in the back aligning with the soothing aura of the restaurant itself. “The biggest challenge was turning a lot in New York City into Mexico,” explains James, and it’s easy to see why. While GITANO’s Garden of Love does not entirely elude the hustle-and-bustle of the city, it does its best to transport guests to a Tulum-like haven.
Restaurant goers should be enormously grateful for this. GITANO Garden of Love hosts a wide selection of eclectic dishes that people will have a hard time finding elsewhere in New York.“ People like what we’re doing, as many New Yorkers want to visit Mexico,” James says. “We’re going for a tropical style, that opens up other avenues.”
More information on GITANO Garden of Love can be found here.