First Bite: Yerba Buena Perry Street

Julian Medina gives us an exclusive preview of his Argentine mixed grill

Like our first two installments at Marea and Xie Xie, First Bite aims to prod, probe and dissect a dish from a restaurant opening in the near future. Consider it a much more delicious Plywood Report, with less dry wall and more dry-aged rib eye. This time around we caught up with Julian Medina, the pan-Latin mastermind behind Yerba Buena and Toloache (long one of our favorite mod-Mexican cantinas in NYC).

In August, Medina plans to expand Yerba Buena with a Perry Street location, opening in the old Matador space in Greenwich Village. The project marks the chef's first partnership with his friend Chris Gilman of The Palm—so it's a safe bet that the focus here will be steak, assisted by Gilman's 25 years in the beef biz. Medina gave us a taste of his menu, preparing an Argentine parrillada, or mixed grill.

By Matt Rodbard, photos by Jori Klein-Jacobs

Yerba Buena Perry Street is slated to open in August at 1 Perry St. at Greenwich Ave.