When Peruvian chef Alejandro Saravia first toured Sydney’s GPO Building in 2021, he knew he’d found a home for Morena, the Latin American restaurant he will open on April 15. The GPO edifice and its Martin Place setting reminded him of the colonial architecture across Latin America, particularly the central square in Lima, his home town.

“Everything they built in that period was grand, with carved stone and gold,” Saravia says. He hopes Morena will capture what Saravia calls Latin America’s golden era.

“It was super wealthy. Everything the world wanted, it had: gold, copper. It was a time when you’d go to Cuba for New Year’s Eve,” Saravia says.

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Melbourne architects Ewert Leaf (Lune Croissanterie, Figlia) have used Latin American neoclassical architecture as a touchpoint, but Saravia is channelling venues such as Peru’s Gran Hotel Bolivar, where Hollywood stars Frank Sinatra, Orson Wells and John Wayne once stayed.

On Morena’s walls hang paintings inspired by the Peruvian Cusco School, in hand-carved frames highlighted by gold leaf, and waiters in jackets and vests will serve the restaurant’s signature ceviche at the table.

“We have nine different types of ceviche that represent how the dish is prepared differently across Latin America,” Saravia says. The list includes a Colombian king prawn ceviche with green plantain crisp, and a Mexican version with kingfish and a cucumber agua chile, which he describes as having delicate consomme-like qualities.

Since moving to Australia in 2006, Saravia has built his reputation mostly in Melbourne, initially with Peruvian restaurant Pastuso, and later at one-hat Farmer’s Daughters, which highlights produce from the Gippsland region.

Morena marks a return to both Sydney, where he had a restaurant of the same name in Surry Hills from 2011 to 2013, and his Latin American food roots. The 200-seat restaurant occupies the former home of Italian restaurant Intermezzo, which closed during the pandemic, and a neighbouring store.

With more Australians travelling to the Americas, our exposure to Latin American food is on the uptick. Saravia believes the timing is right for the restaurant, and he wants to “tell a story” with each dish. That Latin American culinary education will sweep more than his native Peruvian food; the opening menu includes a Cuban suckling pig with mojo sauce and Brazilian lamb picanha with a marinade using cachaca, a spirit made from fermented sugarcane juice.

In the spirit of the Gran Hotel Bolivar in Peru, Saravia wants both the drinks list and menu to be adventurous. He’s tipping the Aztec negroni – made with chocolate bitters and agave – to become Morena’s signature drink, and he’ll slide affogato onto the dessert menu, but give the traditional Italian coffee dessert a Latin American twist using carob ice-cream and a touch of rum.

There will also be a nod to Latin America’s many migrants, with an African-influenced ox tongue dish, and a beef stir-fry on the opening menu. The stir-fry, made with premium eye fillet, Peruvian chilli paste, onions and tomato, is based on Chifa cuisine, a fusion of Chinese and Peruvian ideas, and will be cooked on a specially installed wok burner.

Saravia has also found space for a small artefact − a clay bull decorated with Inca motifs. “It’s there to protect from bad energy,” he says, noting the absence of any cliched interior touches: “We just want to show Latin American in an elegant way.”

Open lunch and dinner Mon-Sat from April 15.

1 Martin Place, Sydney, morenarestaurant.com.au