(Image: @garzonpnw)

In 2024, chef José Garzón will add Capitol Hill to his culinary map with the opening of Bad Chancla, a “love letter to millennial immigrants and first gen Latinx Americans” that will bring “a simple and delicious mix of bodega style sandwiches, rice bowls, fresh juice and cold sides” to a tiny space on E Olive Way.

“A chef used to be measured by the size of his restaurant, absolutely,” Garzón told the Stranger about his Seattle ambitions earlier this year. “But for me, it’s about what you can do outside the restaurant.”

Garzón and the crew of “Latinx street food” collaborators have been busy beyond any one restaurant’s walls, growing with pop-ups, events, and link-ups like Garzón, inside Belltown’s Black Cat Bar, that explore chifa — Chinese dishes made with South American flavors popular in Peru and Ecuador, Garzón’s home nation.

Powered by “a year of research, eating take out in Miami, Vancouver BC, Portland , Hawaii and Las Vegas,” Bad Chancla will be the first “autonomous store” in this effort, growing on the power of its own merits in a space below The Reef pot shop. Three-year-old La Rue Creperie made way for the new project.

(Image: @badchancla)

It will also be powered to Garzón’s preference as an “all electric kitchen” adding a menu for takeout and pick-up for lunch and dinner to E Olive Way’s dense mix of bars and casual restaurants and lounges.

Garzón says Bad Chancla will be an opportunity for growth and experimentation. “In the past we’ve had stayed very close to tradition. Representation has been a huge deal for us when developing concepts for pop ups and events. With Bad Chancla we are taking it one day at a time.”

This menu will represent the struggle of an immigrant growing up on tradition and adapting to life in the USA. It will have anything from ROPA VIEJA RICE BOWLS, PUERTO RICAN, DOMINICAN & MIAMI inspired SANDOS to LATE NITE GRILLED CHEESE POP UPS AND HUEVITOS CON WINNIES AND FLOUR TORTILLAS FOR BRUNCH

The Bad Chancla name evokes the power of a flip-flop in Latin cultures where mom or grandma might wield the shoe as a disciplinary weapon. “Not your abuela’s cooking,” reads Bad Chancla’s cheeky tagline.

Garzón thanked commercial broker Blake Taylor “for being amazing and patient with us” on the search for a home for Bad Chancla. “This process took a while but here we are!!” (Image: @badchancla)

What a dedicated brick and mortar investment on Capitol Hill will mean for the other Garzón projects will remain to be seen but if the group’s previous work is any indication, Bad Chancla will be at the center of busy family of food and drink efforts around the city.

Garzón says Bad Chancla is planned to open by spring.

Bad Chancla will open next year at 1525 E Olive. Learn more @badchancla.

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