Within the walls of a building housing their various restaurants, Colombian-American duo Carmen Angel and Rob Pevitts are steering the rising gastronomic trend in Medellín.
The story
Grupo Carmen was founded in the city of eternal spring by the couple Rob Pevitts and Carmen Angel, two names with a singular belief and passion. They began their professional journey in San Francisco, California, graduating together from Le Cordon Bleu, before relocating to Medellín in 2008 to open Carmen Medellín with Diego Angel, Carmen's father.
After years of dedication and creative evolution, the Carmen family has garnered attention beyond national borders for its modern gastronomic offering inspired by the diversity and richness of the Colombian pantry. But this name is much more than a restaurant brand; it's a collection of concepts and offerings under one roof.
Besides Carmen Cartagena, which celebrated 10 years in the walled city in 2022 with a concept inspired by the Colombian Caribbean, in central Medellín, this family also hosts daily in Sushi Bar By Moshi, paying homage to Asian preparations interpreted with local products while celebrating sustainable Colombian small-scale fishing with a Japanese twist; the steakhouse Don Diablo specializing in 100% locally sourced Colombian aged beef; and finally, in 2020, the creativity of the conceptual collective made of the Carmen family's executive chefs, Mateo Ríos and Sebastián Marín, gave birth to X.O., a sophisticated and flavorful synthesis of local artisans, indigenous fishermen, and farmers where new Colombian preparations take shape.
It is currently the restaurant garnering the most attention and curiosity from critics (currently ranked 27th in Latin America’s 50 Best Restaurants). "Carmen Medellín is born from the inspiration of our Colombian biodiversity. With contemporary gastronomic techniques, we seek to provide an authentic sensory experience through all regions of Colombia. Local products, sustainability, artisans, and small suppliers that we particularly like are the engine of the restaurant's experience and innovation," says Carmen.
All told in different and captivating ways, even in liquid form in the powerful cocktail bar, where you can experience dinner alongside the cocktails crafted by the skilled bartender Maycoll Tobón: "At the bar, we want to highlight the flavors and ingredients that the group uses from the Colombian pantry, as we call it. At the same time, we give importance to traditional and local spirits from various parts of the country with a sensible proposal of craft cocktails and a varied list of juices and ferments that contribute to ensuring an experience that we believe is unique, certainly here in Medellín," he explains.
Carmen restaurant
As mentioned, Carmen restaurant represents a bit of everything that has come over the years and from which everything started, the neon sign illuminates this name in the nights of Medellin, and the layout on two floors plus a garden allows to accommodate a large and different audience.
A contemporary cuisine inspired by the regional biodiversity of Colombia, the one codified by Carmen Angel and Rob Pevitts, who have led the gastronomic growth of Medellín. In this lush oasis in the heart of the city, the experimental menu plays with native products, from blue crab to shrimp with sour sauce and sweet chili, from beef tongue, pickled turnip, and Caribbean mountain purple corn tortilla to the sumptuous dish of chicharrón and sirloin, tamarind, sweet potatoes, and tonka bean, to grilled chicken, baby corn, kimchi, capers, and smoked hen sauce.
It's a multifaceted place where you can enjoy dinner or late-night drinks among rhythm, celebration, and widespread quality. But to seal the experience and have a full idea of the level this family has managed to achieve, one must enter X.O. right next door.
The X.O. microcosm
The trio of partners Rob Pevitts, Mateo Ríos, and Sebastián Marín began dedicating themselves to this project in 2020 with the aim of raising the bar of research and experimentation even higher, in order to finally position Medellín on the world map of taste and cuisine. Working hand-in-hand and mutual support for work and research is the BioLab, the group's research and development center that enhances the complexity of the production chain, directly supporting those who work in different ecosystems with their families and communities, with whom the three chefs and Carmen are in constant contact.
The venue is marvelous and opens with the cocktail bar where you can sit at the long counter, the second room is colorful and bright, with textures reminiscent of different countries around the world, also with a counter section where you can dine, in addition to about ten round tables. This is where you admire the guys at work, where the talents' mastery is achieved.
The chef de cuisine is Daniela Osorno (also the executive chef of the Sushi Bar & Moshi), Rob is the only one from the USA, and his Spanish accent makes every dialogue with his guys fun.
Just as fun and very original is the chosen 13-course menu that showcases the best Colombia has to offer, following the rhythms of nature; therefore, often the recipes differ from those of the previous month: seafood is omnipresent as well as large fish or carefully aged selected cuts of meat, shrimp with macadamia nut puree is a burst of flavor, lobster with koji, butter, and Andean ground apple (yacon) provides a delightful mouthful.
The guys experiment and play with shapes, colors, and flavors: the "azul de Magdalena" crab with osetra caviar and crustacean broth allows textures and flavors of the same habitat (but very different) to coexist in no more than two bites; scallops with grilled cedar, peas, and curly cabbage bring to the table a truly original representation of the bivalve mollusk where cabbage and cedar enhance its sweet flavor adding a sour touch for a totalizing harmony, and still the Tumaco shrimp (Nariño department overlooking the Pacific Ocean), macadamia nut and encocado, which traditionally is a fish stew with coconut, in this case interpreted only in its aromatic part within a warm broth where the flavorful shrimp splashes, solitary.
"Our inspiration is the source from which the raw materials we choose come from, it's this approach that can turn an ingredient powerful," says Rob Pevitts. It might be the energy of Colombia, the strength of Medellin, but everything here seems truly powerful.
Info
Carmen restaurante
Indirizzo: Cra. 36 ##10a-27, Medellín, Antioquia, Colombia
Phone: +57 316 6254896
Email: xo@carmenrestaurante.co
