Beatstro | Alfredo Anguiera and Junior Martinez created something special here with their restaurant.
The lobby’s brilliant green walls and shelves stocked with vintage vinyl LPs are immediately noticeable upon entering. A sophisticated room, complete with paintings by Andre Trenier and photographs by local legend Joe Conzo, can be found behind the velvet curtain. The food, however, is the restaurant’s crowning glory.
Ethereally light pork rinds with barbecue flavor and lemon, as well as golden fried green tomatoes, are only two examples of the menu’s cross-cultural fusion of cooking traditions. Mojo chicken, roasted potatoes, collard greens, and salsa verde are all on the menu, so don’t forget to make room.
The inauguration of Beatstro, a restaurant and entertainment facility that celebrates Bronx pride through graffiti art, soul food, and hip-hop-influenced decor, puts Mott Haven’s heritage on display in the midst of a community re-branding.
Visitors at Beatstro might think they’ve wandered upon a record shop from the ’70s or ’80s. The speakeasy concept is an inventive “insider” take on the borough’s Hip-Hop block parties, such as the ones pioneer Grandmaster Flash used to hold before he became famous in the ’70s. Keeping things as familiar as possible is important to us because we don’t want people to think we came in and changed things. We take the situation in the Bronx very seriously. The “speakeasy” entrance is a set of shelves stocked with X Clan and Def Jam vinyl, along with some more contemporary selections like Wu-Tang Clan, and is separated from the eating area by a black curtain.
The business is run by a local Bronx family, and one of the murals features a reproduction of a famous Harry Chalfant portrait of DJ Kay Slay, painted by local artist Andre Trenier. The trains above the open kitchen and the black books on another wall were painted by SKEME, a graffiti writer from the Bronx, who recreated famous tags and pieces when necessary with help from COPE and other writers from the Beatstro crew. Joe Conzo, one of the great photographers of the late 1970s and early 1980s, has outstanding photographs of the area hanging on the walls.
The foods on Beatstro’s menu are all little updates on classics that would have been offered in the area at the time. BBQ seasoning and lemon juice are sprayed over the Crispy Pork Rinds before serving. You can dip the Fried Green Tomatoes in the sweet and spicy papaya and mustard sauce that sits at the end of the plate. Crispy and juicy, Viera’s Fried Chicken comes with blue cheese slaw and spicy honey. Cajun catfish, Jerk pork belly ribs, and Jambalaya are among the entrée options. Specialty cocktails, such as the Method Man-hattan, are often given (huge) punny names.
Beatstro
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