Best New Restaurants 2015: #11, Los Colibris

By Mark Pupo | Photography by Dave Gillespie

Elia Herrera is an anomaly: a real-deal chef running a Mexican restaurant that’s button-down sophisticated, nary a hipster graffiti wall in sight. She previously oversaw desserts at Canoe and Mistura, and at her new place directs a pastry chef’s hyperfocus upon tortillas (handmade through the day), queso fundido (gooey cheese studded with a smoky chorizo), and chilies en nogada (a charred poblano stuffed with cumin- and cinnamon-scented pork and smothered in a ground walnut and cream sauce). Even guacamole, that potluck groaner, gets bedazzled with pomegranate seeds and surrounded by a pinwheel of stacked nachos—the prettiest dip in town.