Want to experience the wonder and variety of Mexico’s desert, beach, and mountain cuisines in one day? Chef Alex Carballo’s newest spot in Carlsbad should scratch that itch. Carballo based Nómada’s menu on his travels across his native Mexico, from the Baja coast to the mountains of Veracruz—Oaxacan moles, mariscos from Sinaloa, and of course, a Caesar salad from Restaurante Caesar’s in Tijuana.
Carballo will use a wood-burning oven for dishes that play well with fire, like oysters, cochinita pibil (the Yucatan pork specialty, marinated in citrus, wrapped in banana leaves, and slow roasted until tender), and locally caught whole fish. There’s a raw oyster bar, ceviche, aguachiles, seafood tower, and plenty of tacos—Baja fish tacos, carnitas, pulpo, and some pollo doraditos inspired from his childhood.
“We made them chicken here, but my mom used to make these little potato tacos, and they were the best thing on earth,” Carballo says. Doraditos (Mexican “golden” tacos) are tortillas made with fresh masa, stuffed with meat (in this case, chicken), and deep fried before getting topped with accoutrements like pickled onions and cotija cheese. “It just brings you back home.”
While he’s behind the menu, Nómada’s chef de cuisine Travis McKinnon (Fresco Cocina) will head the kitchen once things are up and running. Carballo’s role will be as the new chef/partner for Nómada’s parent company, the Grand Restaurant Group (GRG). He’s taking his more than two decades of chef and restaurant management experience (he helmed Stone Brewing’s massive kitchens, plus Fiesta del Reyes and, most recently, Fox Point Farms) to revitalize the group’s restaurants—Nick & G’s in Rancho Santa Fe, Bellamy’s in Escondido, and Cork & Knife and DiCicco’s in Clovis.
Working with owners Sandra DiCicco-Bonar and Brian Bonar, plus COO Gianina Pickens—Carballo says the goal is to make GRG one of North County’s formidable restaurant groups. And Nómada is the start of the reinvention. The former Alejandra’s space has been transformed by the group’s in-house design team into what Carballo hopes feels an experiential escape.
“If you come in here and it doesn’t feel like you went somewhere, we didn’t do our job,” he says.
A wooden gate leads into the patio, dotted with fire pits and Sonoran ranch-style furniture made with natural wood and leather. Palm trees sway overhead, and the U-shaped bar seats 18 guests. The inside stage is raised with an open event-sized area for salsa, Merengue dance nights, community hangs. Two floors with a private dining room allow for up to 250 guests, and its goal is for many of them to be regulars.
“I just want people to really feel like they have a community restaurant,” says Carballo. He built the menu and space for people to be comfortable coming to order one drink and a small plate two or three times a week. Same goes for GRG’s new beverage director, Sean Ward (ex-Duck Dive, RMD Group)—who designed a Californian/Latin American wine list and agave-centric cocktails.
Nómada will open for dinner service daily, with brunch on weekends and happy hour on weekdays from 3 p.m. to 6 p.m.
Nómada soft opens at 6996 El Camino Real in Carlsbad on Saturday, December 20 with limited hours through Tuesday, December 23. The restaurant will open with normal operating hours on Friday, December 26 with a grand opening planned on Friday, January 16.
Normal operating hours will be Monday through Thursday, 3 p.m. to 9 p.m.; Friday, 3 p.m. to midnight; Saturday, 10 a.m. to midnight; and Sunday 10 a.m. to 9 p.m.
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