In Esperanza Cocina de la Playa, Ron and Greg Newman are believed to have brought a gem of a restaurant to California’s Manhattan Beach city. It combines beach town charms with an element of glamor.
It is the newest Mexican restaurant of the Baja Sharkeez Restaurant Group’s team, a spacious facility with a vast dining room. Gulla Jónsdóttir, an architect from Iceland, is the designer of the dining room dotted with Mexican light fixtures made of ceramic. The room is in a pleasantly windy open space, which is inspired by Mexico City and the coast of Cabo San Lucas.
There is an indoor lounge and outdoor patio upstairs. When one walks into the lounge, they would get the impression that they are on the sets of the famous TV show entitled Narcos. The lounge is modeled after Mexican hotelier Arturo Valdez’s cliffside apartment, and it reflects the atmosphere of Valdez’s parties that cater to Mexico’s best-known Telenovela stars. For your information, the term Telenovela refers to a form of television serial drama for people in Latin America.
From July 30, 2021, the restaurant will set the stage for ‘EZ After Dark’ on Fridays and Saturdays between 11:00 pm and 02:00 am. The event will run beyond usual restaurant hours as well as will feature after-dinner cocktails and small bites.
The restaurant has a seafood-heavy menu from chef Ray Alvarez, which first-time customers describe as extensive and diverse. The menu also offers many options for non-veg dieters with a filet mignon variety and mesquite ribeye pieces. The pieces of ribeye steaks are also available in the tacos containing tortillas prepared in-house with the comal, a flat griddle. The dish known as halibut frito in its fresh form is a mixture of garlic mojo, queso fresco, chipotle aioli, and guacamole.
As a starter, you might want to try any form of crudo of the sea or the shrimp taquitos available in this restaurant. The so-called Ceviche los Cabos dish is prepared with sea bass, avocado, and green olives in red jalapeno soup. On the other hand, the so-called Ceviche Pineapple Camarones blends mango and white prawns in chamoy soup. You may want to try a set of three dishes from the menu instead, all served alongside crispy banana chips.
Besides crispy grilled taco and burrito options, and conventional enchilada options, the pan-seared and seasonal dish that the restaurant serves on a day is available in various preparations. Some of these preparations include veracruzana, ranchera, blackened and pacifio.
Perhaps the best and most notable aspect of the restaurant menu is the drinks on offer. The bar program from head mixologists Kevin Williams and john Foxis a playful and fresh delight, with perhaps the South Bay’s largest list of mezcals and tequilas. The restaurant team has scoured throughout Mexico, Oaxaca, the Yucatán Peninsula, and Baja for small-batch liquor producers. After that, they have curated a wide range of products from the producers, including Mal Bien Tepextate, Clase Azul, Casamigos, and Patron.
Handmade shrubs, mixers and mists put a spin on conventional tequila cocktails here, such as the so-called La Rosa, plus eleven Margarita variations. The fruit mojito prepared with fresh watermelon or strawberries is a muddled yet superb refreshment option. On the other hand, the so-called Rico Suave is a hypnotic cocktail, ideal for sunsets in California.