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Alex Bobadilla and Karen Negevesky of Sincero (Photo courtesy of C. Brannan)
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Sincero hopes to host a pop-up each month and always feature at least three menu items (Photo courtesy of C. Brannan)
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Alex Bobadilla cooking during Sincero's first pop-up at The Veil (Photo by C. Brannan)
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During Sincero's first pop-up they sold out within two hours (Photo courtesy of C. Brannan).
When 23-year-old Karen Negvesky and 27-year-old Alex Bobadilla debuted their pop-up series, Sincero, last month at The Veil Brewing, their cochinita pibil tacos sold out within the first two hours, and their entire menu shortly followed.
The duo returns to The Veil this Sunday, Feb. 10, from noon to 5 p.m., and they're hoping these beginning pop-up days focused on preserving authentic Mexican food and traditions will serve as their first steps toward a brick-and-mortar restaurant.
“We are trying to do something simple and sincere,” says Negvesky, who worked on a small, sustainable family farm in Nashville after graduating college and is currently a server at Brenner Pass. “We’re trying to preserve those traditions, do something new and keep them going."
Pop-ups are where the culinary wheels really start to turn for chefs — a testing ground that offers a chance to mull their future, make mistakes, home in on their identity and meet the community that they hope will be diners in their restaurant one day.
The RVAdine scene is no stranger to the concept. In 2018, we sat back and witnessed the evolution of restaurants and food businesses including Tiny Victory, Longoven, Empanadas Market, ZZQ, Perch and Nate’s Bagels as they cultivated a cult-like following as pop-ups and graduated to established brick-and-mortar status. Sincero hopes to do the same.
Bobadilla and Negvesky met in Baltimore while working at Parts and Labor, a hip butchery and restaurant that closed this past summer, but not before Bobadilla gained an understanding and appreciation of utilizing the entirety of an animal, or before the duo discovered their passion for working events.
“We started to realize how these events work and how to make them approachable — that’s when the gears started turning, we could do a pop-up,” Bobadilla says.
It wasn’t until they moved to Richmond, years later, that the idea for a pop-up resurfaced.
“We said, 'We're pretty good at this, we can combine all of our skills between us,' ” says Negvesky, a ceramics and sculpture graduate from Maryland Institute College of Art (MICA).
Bobadilla, a culinary school dropout whose journey in the industry began with a stint as a dishwasher before he began climbing the ranks, eventually landed alongside Chef Tom Cunanan at Bad Saint in D.C. He's currently in the kitchen at Brenner Pass.
Together, they felt they could blend the social and culinary aspect of pop-ups, as well as their appreciation for the culture. The dishes for Sincero are inspired by Bobadilla’s heritage — his mother is from Mexico, and and his father from Guatemala.
As Bobadilla grew up up in Silver Spring, Maryland, his mom shopped at Mexican grocers, cooking traditional dishes for her family, and Bobadilla was surrounded by a large population of people with Mexican, Salvadoran and Honduran roots.
"Whatever she was able to cook, that's what we were eating," Bobadilla says, "and as a kid it was weird to see a cow stomach braising in a pot, but now as an adult, it's really good, and as I got older, I said, 'OK, I'll stick with this.' "
When he relocated to Richmond six months ago, Bobadilla missed that cultural connection.
The hope is that through Sincero, Negvesky and Bobadilla can expose people to traditional Mexican dishes and curate a learning experience for the community surrounding the preparation, process and customs of the food.
“Some people don’t know what half these dishes are, and we want to educate people, that’s our goal,” explains Bobadilla, who says sometimes the journey behind a dish can get lost.
Bobadilla and Negvesky also want their pop-ups to promote a sense of community and camaraderie.
“We want this to be a cool spot for people to hang out but still have very authentic food to be proud of,” Bobadilla says. “We’re trying to cultivate that vibe — you can come hang out, listen to cool music and enjoy good food.”
Sincero currently acquires ingredients from La Milpa; tortillas — and masa for sopes — from Tortilleria Azteca; and pork products from Autumn Olive Farms via Cardinal State Butchers in Bon Air.
Menu items include chorizo sopes; queso Oaxaca quesadilla with black bean spread, pickled jalapenos and carrots; chicken tinga and chorizo tostadas; carnitas tacos with cilantro and lime; and, in the warmer months, ceviche.
The impromptu pop-ups will take place at least once a month, and Sincero says they are working on fun collaborations and events for the future. They recently took a trip to Cuernavaca and are headed to Oaxaca in a few months to continue to explore Mexican culture and expand their knowledge of its cuisine.
