May 6, 2014 – The courtyard at Mundaka in Carmel is sprouting new tables and sun umbrellas, as owner Gabe Georis gets ready to launch a retro lunch menu starting next Wednesday, May 14. Lunch service will also be available in his adjacent bar, recently renamed Barmel. It’s the vintage mirrored bar imported from San Francisco that inspired the retro menu theme. “It’s an historic bar that was once in a place owned by the notorious madame Sally Stanford who later became the mayor of Sausalito,” says Georis. “So we wanted to play with that theme of San Francisco in the 40s and 50s by reinventing classic, old school food using cleaner, more modern ingredients.”
The bar menu will be served from 11:30am to 9pm daily, except Mondays. Inspired by throwback meals like the Olympic Club Burger, Hangtown Fries and Oyster Omelets, the menu includes a confit chicken leg with potato chip breading, a braised pork sandwich, with kimchee and sriracha mayo, and an outstanding burger topped with Spanish Blue Cheese. Mundaka’s popular Spanish cuisine and tapas prepared by chef Brandon Miller will continue to be served at night in the restaurant. After 9pm, Barmel will be open for drinks only, sometimes with live music.
If that’s not enough, Georis is also ramping up breakfast service at his café in the courtyard with the help of former server Ramsay Elmachtoub. Ramsay is starting his own small business inside the café called the Monterey Bagel Company and just a few days ago began serving delicious homemade bagels with amazing cream cheese spreads that he makes from scratch using live cultures. Right now there are four flavors of bagels: plain, seeded, cinnamon and gluten-free; with four flavors of cream cheese to try with them: plain, house cured salmon and chives, blueberry nut; and zatar—a combination of Mediterranean spices. There are bagel sandwiches, like one with chorizo and eggs, as well as Spanish tortilla and an orange coffee cake—all to enjoy with expressos pressed with San Francisco’s Ritual Coffee, which Georis claims is the best in the world. The café is open from 7:30am to 2:30pm everyday except Mondays. Mundaka’s peaceful little courtyard off San Carlos Street is dog-friendly and with the new breakfast and lunch menus is about to get a lot busier too.
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At Edible Monterey Bay, our mission is to celebrate the local food culture of Santa Cruz, San Benito and Monterey Counties, season by season. We believe in sustainability, and we believe everyone has a right to healthful, clean and affordable food. We think knowing where our food comes from is powerful, and we hope our magazine, website and newsletters inspire readers to get to know and support our local growers, fishers, chefs, vintners and food artisans.
