Taco towers & salt foam margaritas: Brisbane’s ultra cool new Latin eatery

A new Latin-fusion restaurant and bar is set to bring the party to Brisbane’s dining scene with its contemporary cocktails and quirky eats.

Taco towers, sauces so hot they’ll need a warning and tricked-up margaritas with salt foam and caviar – welcome to Brisbane’s latest Latin fusion restaurant and bar sure to have everyone talking.

Viva La Cali is the work ofMarc Grey and Steve Maidenof Fortitude Valley’s 21-seat comic book-themed restaurant 1st ­Edition and will move in next door, taking over the former site of Kings in California Lane.

While inspired predomin­antly by both gents’ love of ­Mexico, the new venue will also add influences from Colombia, Peru and Brazil to create a ­cross-cultural hotspot with a fun party atmosphere.

“Everything we are going to do in this bar this is really what we’ve wanted to do for a long time,” Grey says.

Cocktail guru Marc Grey and chef Steve Maiden at new venue Viva La Cali in Fortitude Valley. Picture: Liam Kidston

That means an amped-up food menu rich is nostalgia, but with a modern, progressive twist, courtesy of chef Maiden, with the likes of house-made pickles, empanadas with a pizza dough crust rather than the typical flaky pastry version and three-tier, build-your-own taco towers, with tortillas, meats, sauces and condiments.

“The food is Latin-fusion, ­bigger, share-style plates and trying to take it back to when you were younger at home and you were sitting around the table with your family and everyone just shared the meals and it just brings back that ­nostalgic vibe,” says Maiden, who has been working on a special array of sauces transcending from the mild and conservative to the ear-steaming and perspiration-inducing.

The drinks menu, curated by Grey, will offer an equal walk on the wild side with plenty of top-quality tequila and mezcal-based cocktails using contemporary gastronomic techniques such as fat and milk washes and tinctures. Guests can expect everything from sippers with strawberry-infused mezcal to up to 10 margaritas, some topped with perhaps a salt foam or even handmade orange caviar.

“We really want to take everything and elevate it,” says Grey, who has been working on the cocktails for nine months.

Ensuring plenty of fun at the venue will be Viva La Cali’s weekly bottomless margarita and taco Sundays, plus monthly laneway parties featuring local vendors and guest chefs.

“We are really trying to activate that whole laneway – we want it to be a little bit of a hotspot,” Grey says.

Viva La Cali is set to open within the next few months.