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Sincero owners Karen Negvesky and Alex Bobadillo
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Sincero took over the former Lucy’s restaurant space at 404 N. Second St. in Jackson Ward.
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Grilled pork ribs with Concord grape barbecue sauce, peanut salsa sec and chives
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Charred broccoli with tahini-yogurt dressing, roasted grapes, crushed almonds and queso fresco
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The Old Salty cocktail with tequila, frothy grapefruit, lime and a salted rim
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The birria melt features braised brisket, melted cheese, caramelized onions, pickled peppers and mayo on a pressed hoagie roll served with waffle fries.
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Chicken taco with pico de gallo and creamy cilantro sauce
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A seating area in the back of the restaurant
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Part of the dining area and bar at Sincero; the painting is by local artist, baker and chef Olivia Wilson.
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Tables in the front of the dining area look out onto Second Street.
Nearly five years ago, Sincero was prepping for its debut pop-up at The Veil Brewing Co., serving tacos and sopes (Mexican corn cakes) on paper plates beneath an EZ-Up tent. A week ago, owners Karen Negvesky and Alex Bobadilla introduced Sincero as a brick-and-mortar restaurant in Jackson Ward — with real dishes, flatware, cocktails and all.
At the Mexican American mashup, guests will find everything from grilled pork ribs lathered in Concord grape barbecue sauce and accented with peanut salsa seca (think peanut butter and jelly) to fried calamari tossed in Old Bay (a shout-out to Bobadillo’s Maryland roots) and a pressed birria melt. There are a dozen offerings, many shareable plates such as ancho dry-rubbed wings and charred, tahini-tossed broccoli topped with queso fresco, along with a handful of sandwiches and tacos, with the most expensive items ringing up at $16.
Taking over the shuttered Lucy’s at 404 N. Second St., the duo describe the building as a neighborhood nook with good bones — a unicorn in today’s dining world as turnkey buildings have become harder to come by.
For Negvesky and Bobadillo, getting here has felt organic, with a steady forward momentum as they gained a following through their pop-ups and snagged a spot as one of Hatch Local food hall’s first vendors when it opened in 2022. Aiming to bring a casual bistro to the neighborhood, the Jackson Ward residents want Sincero to be a mutable place, a spot for grabbing a drink with friends or stopping by solo to have a sandwich and a shot of mezcal, while also being family friendly.
“Sincero has had a lot of different versions and been a lot of different things, and we can really say the whole time it has been us,” says Negvesky, who has worked at Brenner Pass, Metzger Bar & Butchery, and Odyssey. “We keep saying, people kind of put the label of ‘authentic’ on us, but we are more so, just kind of authentically ourselves. This is the next kind of step for us, a more matured version of the brand.”
The menu is an edible scrapbook of sorts showcasing their evolution: A trio of tacos (chicken, steak and chorizo) are a nod to their beginnings, while the wings were a popular item during their food hall stint. On the cocktail lineup, The Lil Dino (Hendrick’s gin, cardamaro and Concord grape), formerly on the menu at Metzger Bar & Butchery, is a salute to Negvesky’s time working in the front of the house there.
Other libations include a margarita-meets-Salty Dog, aka Old Salty, featuring tequila, frothy grapefruit and lime with a salted rim; a mezcal Negroni; and a few draft beer options including Nighthawk Brewery’s Mexican lager and The Veil Brewing Co.’s Master Shredder IPA.
Crafting the menu into an honest version of themselves has been part of the fun for the pair. And for the first time, Bobadilla is able to let loose a little in the kitchen, no longer forced to navigate the nomadic existence of a pop-up or work within the restrictions that come from operating in a shared space.
“We finally get to put the stuff on that Nick [Shawn] and I were messing around with,” says Bobadilla, who previously worked at Brenner Pass and at Bad Saint in Washington, D.C. “I felt like I was always thinking about it in a different way and didn’t just want to sell tacos, or street tacos or whatever anyone else wanted me to do. I kind of felt like I’ve always been thinking that way, and now I get to follow through on things.”
In the kitchen, Bobadillo is joined by Shawn, also previously of Brenner Pass, who joined the Sincero team last year. An integral part of Sincero’s forward momentum, he could undoubtedly, and delightfully, be dubbed the partners’ third wheel. But his relationship with Negvesky started long before they began working together.
“We have known each other our entire lives; our parents were friends growing up, so we’ve known each other since we were babies,” she says.
That sense of familiarity ripples through the restaurant, from a painting that hangs near the bar gifted by friend and local baker Olivia Wilson to the Funny Feet cocktail, a long-running joke between Negvesky and her father stemming from his love of silly slippers, and a pencil cactus from the former owners of Lucy’s, Jason and Amanda Lucy.
Adding that they hope to fill a hole that Saison left when it shuttered earlier this year after a decade-long run in Jackson Ward, Negvesky says, “What this place is going to be is exactly what it needs to be, and what the neighborhood wants to make of it. We just want people to come in and make it their own experience.”
Sincero is open Tuesday through Thursday from 4 to 9 p.m. and Friday and Saturday from 4 to 10 p.m. Look for brunch service to debut soon.
