Cave-themed Oaxacan restaurant Cuevacía opens in Colony Square this month

The interior of Cuevacía, the Oaxacan and Northern Mexican restaurant opening in Colony Square on Jan. 27, has been transformed from a light and bright fast-casual sushi restaurant into a moodily lit, stone-walled cavern with arched grottos meant for intimate dinners and cocktails.

It’s the second restaurant in William Pitts’ new restaurant group, Spur Hospitality, only a few yards away from his first restaurant, Saints + Council, which opened in 2021. Before that, he held leadership positions at Cafe Intermezzo for more than 10 years.

The two restaurants and its parent hospitality group are Pitts’ efforts at shaping restaurant culture into his own ideal, one that emphasizes progress and achievement in all parts of life for its employees.

“It’s not just about a pretty restaurant that serves good food and has good service. For me, it’s about creating a culture that is rooted in something that’s truly good,” he said.

William Pitts, owner of Saints + Council, will open his second restaurant in hospitality group Spur Hospitality next week. (Courtesy of Bryce France)

Cuevacía, which means empty cave or empty tomb, is the latest installment of that goal. The restaurant’s name embodies love to him.

“It’s about caring for each other and nourishing people,” he said.

Of all the places Pitts has visited, he said that the Oaxacan people were by far the most proud of their cuisine, so he wants to carry that feeling into the restaurant. That means sourcing some ingredients from the regions where they originated — including masa from Oaxaca — and making everything from scratch.

“It is the hospitality that you receive in Oaxaca, that warm. It’s the same type of hospitality that we’re bringing here,” director of operations Omar Garcia said.

The restaurant will serve brunch, lunch and dinner with lunch launching several weeks after opening.

The dinner menu from executive chef Christopher Smith and chef de cuisine Aaron Paik will include fresh tortillas made from Oaxacan masa and dishes like tlayuda with squash blossom, featuring black beans, quesillo, fried squash blossoms, cabbage and avocado; mole negro con pollo with half a chicken served alongside Oaxacan black mole, green rice and tortillas; and barbacoa de res, or slow-braised beef, ancho and pasilla chiles consommé and tortillas.

The tortillas at Cuevacía will be handmade with Oaxacan masa. (Courtesy of Bryce France)

Brunch will include offerings like chilaquiles with chicken, huevos rancheros, brunch tlayudas with avocado, jicama and papaya, and tres leches French toast.

Beverage director Eric Bradley, who also oversees Saints + Council’s beverage program, has built out a wine menu with Central and South American, Spanish and Portuguese producers. There will also be some Mexican wines from a region that continues to gain recognition, Bradley said.

For cocktails, he said to expect influences from Central and South America, including more than 100 agave-based spirits.

The menu includes drinks like a riff on a piña colada using Charanda (a Mexican sugarcane spirit), anise liqueur, tamarind cordial and coconut cream, and a tomatillo Bloody Mary with mezcal, tequila and tomatillos for brunch. There will also be Mexican hot chocolate and agua frescas.

The visuals of Cuevacía are striking. The team turned a 12-foot-tall space into two levels of seating, Pitts said. He calls the stairs going to the second level the “stairs to heaven” because of the light strips that form an arch overhead. Wooden beams in the ceiling were reclaimed from an old Pennsylvania dairy farm, and the seating on the bottom floor is tucked into intimate “grottos” that appear to have been carved into the wall, tight enough to require ducking one’s head upon entry.