Comal Channels Mexico City’s Rhythms into a Must-Visit Manhattan Restaurant
Chef Gaz Herbert blends bold Mexican ingredients with global techniques in a tactile, tightly edited dining room furnished by CDMX studio La Metropolitana
Few cities balance culinary variety and precision quite like Mexico City, where casual joints often serve dishes as exacting as any fine dining room. That spirit now has a foothold in Lower Manhattan, where a quiet, tree-lined edge of Forsyth Street has welcomed Comal, a restaurant that channels CDMX’s adventurous approach to flavor and form into a warm, tightly edited restaurant overlooking Seward Park in the Lower East Side. (Downtown epicureans may recognize it as the former home of Gem Wine by Flynn McGarry, who relocated the menu to Nolita’s Gem Home in the spring.) The newly opened dining room summons Chef Gaz Herbert’s global rolodex—born in Cuernavaca, trained at London’s acclaimed River Cafe and Ikoyi, and most recently culinary director at Todos Santos Boutique hotel in Baja—with a focused tribute to Mexico’s bold ingredients and convivial spirit.
Comal is casual yet elevated—confident in its roots while open to experimentation and global influence. Herbert and head chef Scott McKay crafted dishes around the notion that Mexican cuisine needn’t be confined to traditional categories. “I hope to challenge the rhetoric of pigeonholing and have the ability to draw culinary references from all over the world, using the bold heat and colorful palate of Mexican ingredients to assist in this process,” Herbert says. “There are many restaurants in CDMX that use this multidisciplinary approach to cooking, and with the range of produce in Mexico, as in New York, this is something to be celebrated.”
Comal’s menu makes that ambition clear. Potato mil hojas is layered with hoja santa, a Mexican herb whose airy floral notes highlight the richness of salsa macha. Beef crudo arrives with chapulines and huitlacoche, while lime oil sharpens striped bass aguachile. Montauk lobster is paired with herbs from Cascabel Farms. There’s sweetbread with pineapple and tortilla, grilled broccoli with pepitas and tonnato, and a smoked half chicken served with house-made hot sauce and a stuffed wing. Desserts include a guajillo-spiced chocolate torta and a seasonal rice dish that evolves with the kitchen’s mood. The wine list leans small and precise, with bottles from Mexico, France, Italy, and Spain. A full mezcal and tequila program, shaped with the help of Yola Mezcal, is underway while the restaurant awaits its full liquor license.
Herbert’s vision extends beyond the kitchen, too. For interiors, he turned to La Metropolitana, the fast-rising Mexico City studio founded by Rodrigo Escobedo, Mauricio Guerrero, and Alejandro Gutiérrez known for its exacting woodwork and breezy take on hospitality. Herbert discovered the firm a few years ago after staying at Circulo Mexicano, a hotel near the Zocalo, and being transfixed by the furniture’s rigorous craftsmanship.
The team collaborated closely to adapt their approach for discerning New York diners. Every table and chair was fashioned to fit the snug footprint, which accommodates just over 40 guests. “New York is a city with a unique energy, where the speed, diversity, and scale of design demand new rhythms and standards,” the studio says. They reconsidered proportions, finishes, and details, but the process “remained true to the principles that define us—honest materiality, craftsmanship, sustainability, and cultural expression.”
Tornillo wood, a golden-brown hardwood native to Latin America, envelops a windowside dining nook, imparting warmth. Chairs sport red cord weaving that complements the earthy palette; its form nods to the famed Mexico City restaurant Contramar, a reference Herbert calls “a subtle gesture for well-traveled diners.” For everyone else? “They offer a tactile touch of the incredible craftsmanship of the company and their legendary carpenters.” Artworks, meanwhile, are courtesy of JO-HS gallery, which fittingly has locations in both Mexico City and New York.
The name Comal refers to the flat griddles used in Mexico and Central America to cook tortillas and arepas, toast spices and nuts, and sear meat. Herbert plans to introduce an electric version of the clay comal, but a flat-top stands in for now. “The comal is the warm heart of the kitchen, where the ingredients and chefs gather, constantly in use, always being refilled with wood for the fire,” he explains. “This symbolism is what we’re all about.” With an open kitchen, warm atmosphere, and soaring trees outside, Comal feels like a quaint pocket of Condesa tucked into the Lower East Side. The view is incidental, but it completes the mood. “It could easily be in Parque Mexico,” Herbert says. “The ambiance really checks out.”
