August 5, 2014 – Get ready to welcome an exciting new restaurant to Carmel-by-the-Sea. Affina is set to open later this month at the corner of 6th and San Carlos—the latest project of a trio of men who are very familiar on the local food and wine scene.
Affina—which in French refers to the refinement and polishing that goes on in a workshop—will emphasize wine-friendly “new American cuisine, with a little bit of French” according to chef de cuisine James Anderson, formerly of Casanova and La Bicyclette.
Anderson, 26, has been tapped to open the new restaurant by owners Dexter Salazar and Shane Smit, who partnered on the former Constance Wine Room.
Smit brings some celebrity glam to the project. He’s the talented South African singer and piano player who formed part of the group Overtone that recorded tracks for Clint Eastwood’s academy-award winning film Invictus and later appeared in his wife’s reality TV show, Mrs. Eastwood and Company.
A third partner, executive chef Nico Izard, has worked with the renowned Joël Robuchon, and is currently consulting from France while he waits for a work visa to come through.
When you walk into the 49-seat dining room there’s a piano, wine bar and big open kitchen, designed by Izard. The black steel, canvas and reclaimed wood décor features handmade tables and geometric metal light fixtures with Edison bulbs created by Salt Designs of Carmel. They’ve also built a large basketweave domed fixture they call the chicken coop which creates a focal point in the room.
The menu will be based around “what’s good at the farmers’ market and what’s swimming in the sea” says Anderson, who was involved in the expansion and retooling of both Casanova and La Bicyclette. “I’m going to get the ball rolling, because I have experience in that and already know all the food artisans and farmers in the community,” he says. “When Nico comes back it will be a collaborative menu.”
The food will play off French classics using locally sourced ingredients, including produce from MEarth’s environmental education garden where Anderson has been volunteering as a chef-instructor.
So for lunch you may see items like grass-fed hamburgers with Schoch Farms Monterey Jack cheese sharing the menu with small plates of lighter fare like Monterey Calamari in white wine escabeche with fresh basil or Salmon belly tartar with heirloom tomatoes or Heirloom tomatoes with Venetian black rice.
Coq au Vin may be on the dinner menu, but made with cage-free California Jidori chicken. Nate Castillo of Castillo Winery in Morgan Hill will be the sommelier.
“A lot of our clientele come from around the world and the locals tend to travel a lot, so the idea is to show off food unique to the Monterey Peninsula in the most flattering way possible,” says Anderson. “After all, almost everything you could need as a chef is right here.”
The partners hope to do a soft launch of Affina with a series of private dinners during the Concours d’Elegance in mid-August and then official opening soon thereafter. Affina, the partners say, is just the first in a series of food and wine projects they have up their sleeves. But the restaurant is sure to make a big impact on the local dining just on its own.
About the author
Deborah Luhrman is publisher and editor of Edible Monterey Bay. A lifelong journalist, she has reported from around the globe, but now prefers covering our flourishing local food scene and growing her own vegetables in the Santa Cruz Mountains.
