Bad Chancla
Latin American restaurant · Capitol Hill ·
Latin-style rice bowls, sandwiches, and snacks with flavor
Latin-style rice bowls, sandwiches, and snacks with flavor
"In March, José Garzón’s hot dog-studded Latin-fusion food from Black Cat Bar in Belltown traveled up the hill to Olive and Denny, where the Garzón crew is running a li’l deli-bodega with an expanded menu. (A chancla is a flip-flop — the thing your mom chases you with when you’re a bad little kid. “‘The trauma of ‘la chancla’ is something that most Latinx millennials and first-gens can relate to,” Garzón says.) To-go items include the Fake Ass Cubano (using Hawaiian rolls instead of pan de agua), vegan and non-vegan picadillo, a super luscious ropa vieja, and a few Caribbean/South American dry goods. Bad Chancla is also selling breakfast sandwiches and burritos as well as local small-batch coffee by Black Arrows on weekends only." - Meg van Huygen, Harry Cheadle
"José Garzón practices a no-holds-barred delineation of Latinx tradition versus the idea of “authenticity” at Bad Chancla, challenging expectations about cultural foodways." - Mark DeJoy
"This small sandwich shack on Capitol Hill is best used as a quick mid-day snack or light bite before heading into Montana for a long night of whiskey sours—even if Bad Chancla's small portions leave you wanting more. Everything happens before your eyes in the lively counter-service shop as the sandwich press sizzles and the wafts of peppery cumin fill the room. There you’ll find a lot of flavor in options like the “riki taki” sandwich with sofrito-spiked picadillo beef and soft slices of hardboiled egg. The ropa vieja bowl has a nice zip of pickled onions, too. But the sandwiches are tiny and the rice bowls are overloaded with grains. Bad Chancla certainly has pit-stop potential—we just wish we felt fuller after leaving." - Kayla Sager-Riley
"I’m intrigued by José Garzón and Stefanie Hieber’s first full brick-and-mortar, described as a glorious, messy mash-up of pan-Latin cuisines and a love letter to millennial first-generation immigrants; Garzón says “We’re not sticking to any tradition,” and the menu will range from scrambled eggs and weenies to a brunch menu with chilaquiles and calentado — and even grilled cheese." - Harry Cheadle
"On Capitol Hill, Bad Chancla will be an unapologetic celebration of millennial immigrants and first-generation Latinx Americans rather than an exercise in so-called authenticity. Garzón says it won’t stick to any tradition—his target market is “my kids”—so the menu will range from scrambled eggs and weenies and a brunch menu with chilaquiles and calentado to grilled cheese and pan-Latin/American sandwiches. Examples announced include a Dominican riki taki (a picadillo beef sandwich with tomatoes, macerated cabbage, and hard-boiled eggs) and a playfully “fake” Cuban sandwich on a Hawaiian roll. The project, the first brick-and-mortar from José Garzón and partner Stefanie Hieber, was prepared through research trips to Miami, Hawaii, Portland, and Las Vegas and has already generated palpable hype after being named one of Bon Appetit’s most anticipated openings of 2024; an opening date is still TBD." - Charlie Lahud-Zahner