An exciting new concept is currently coming to the East Village, and it’s not a wine bar!
Caleta is a brand new restaurant concept from owners Javier Zuñiga and Jesse Merchant Zuñiga. Based out of Brooklyn, the couple established Bad Habit Ice Cream out of their own Bushwick apartment, dedicating many months of their life to finding the absolute perfect balance of flavor. Bad Habit has since become one of the city’s most popular new ice cream purveyors, and Javier and Jesse have been appearing at more and more popups to share their creation with the city.
Now, the newly-married couple is getting ready to step up their operation with a brand new brick-and-mortar restaurant space. Their new concept, Caleta, has been steadily refined over the past few months at Brooklyn’s Ostudio, a community kitchen and coworking space where Javier has been testing and developing his new menu. Now that he has finally mastered the menu though, he is now ready to share his plan with the world, having just announced Caleta’s launch on Instagram.
Caleta is first and foremost not a wine bar. While they will be a bar and they will serve wine, their tag line makes it abundantly clear that Caleta will be much more than s standard wine bar. Offering a savory menu of New American small plates, Caleta will also serve as the official production home for Bad Habit. By pairing their popular ice cream with Caleta’s small plate menu, Javier and Jesse hope to create the ultimate pairing experience.
According to Javier’s latest Instagram post, Caleta will be arriving in the East Village at 131 Avenue A, in the space that formerly housed Thai District. While they haven’t yet announced when they intend to open, you can follow Caleta and Bad Habit on Instagram for updates on all of Jesse and Javier’s latest ventures.
