First Look: The El Primo Sanchez Fiesta Hits Crown Street With Margs, Piñatas and Karaoke

This week we’re adding El Primo Sanchez to The Hot List , the definitive guide to Sydney’s most essential food and drink experiences.

El Primo Sanchez isn’t named after a Hollywood star like its siblings Maybe Frank and Maybe Sammy. Instead, it takes its inspiration from a man who served them: revered Los Angeles waiter Sergio Gonzalez.

Before El Primo Sanchez left its first home on Oxford Street last month, a shrine to Gonzalez – trademark red double-breasted jacket and all – was displayed in the window.

At the new El Primo on Crown Street, that altar to Gonzalez, who died in 2019, overlooks the main staircase entry. It’s a devotional to Mexico, to hospitality, to dedication – ideal foreshadowing for what you’ll find up those stairs.

“For me this has been the most fun project I’ve ever done,” Stefano Catino, Maybe Group’s director and co-founder, tells Broadsheet. “We love El Primo, but we really needed this room to make it what it deserves to be.”

That room used to be Four Pillars Gin. And it’s changed a lot in under a month. If you have a friend who lives in a minimalist apartment, imagine that pal had to move out – and a Mexican antique shop somehow got its hands on the keys. Gone is the understated gin distillery restraint. In its place is more.

More picture frames – hundreds – of genuine Mexican art, vintage movie posters and photographs. More plants, pots, marionettes, trinkets and industry awards on the shelves. More everything.

Piñatas perch and dangle anywhere and everywhere, begging to be bashed to nothing. A light-up dancefloor is on its way. The glint of disco balls licks every wall. It’s a room that makes you feel like drinking a Margarita, right now, is the only good idea in the world.

You’ll have five to choose from: classic, spicy and abstract takes. The Tropical Margarita (starring fresh mango, tajin and a mango and passionfruit puree) screams summer. So do the highballs. And the Banana Daiquiri. And the Horchata Colada slushies. And the Paloma.

But El Primo is also a tequila bar, and the agave affection is apparent. Before you get stuck into the hefty list, make sure you get a “tequila passport” – a personal logbook and boozy loyalty card, held by the bar on your behalf, containing your thoughts about every sip you try. You’ll unlock a new prize as you reach each milestone.

The old El Primo was more restaurant, and its second coming is “definitely more of a bar”. And the food has changed accordingly.

The snacky menu is fun, but every table will probably succumb to the pull of the cheeseburger tacos and the chips, which arrive in a splayed-open bag topped with beef tartare and manchego.

Serious contemplation should also be given to Paddo’s signature: a snug four-person karaoke room. This time, rather than being a free-for-all, it’s bookable for $25 a head, which is more like a deposit that can go towards food and drinks. You’ll belt out your go-to song (mine’s Call Me Maybe , if you’re asking) in a tucked-away corner – an iridescent rave cave in a heritage vault.

This El Primo Sanchez is brand new, but it’s also not. First-time customers will find a lot to like. Loyal fans keep everything they loved. This move may have come from nowhere, but it feels like it was always meant to be. And the opening of a Maybe Sammy shop downstairs means that El Primo is no longer a far-flung satellite for the Maybe Group – it could even be the central node.

People love to eulogise Oxford Street, but neighbouring Crown Street hasn’t exactly flourished recently either. But between the ever-popular Dolphin, new spots like Good Pair Days, and now El Primo Sanchez, it feels like Crown – this pocket of it at least – is about to reclaim its throne. Just in time for a Margarita summer.

El Primo Sanchez
410 Crown Street, Surry Hills

Hours:
Wed & Thu 4.30pm–midnight
Fri & Sat 4.30pm–1am

elprimosanchez.com
@elprimosanchezsydney

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