Puma, an Argentinian joint where fire and ice collide, is Detroit's best new restaurant

Yahoo

01-04-2025

Puma in Detroit takes the No. 1 spot on the 2025 Detroit Free Press/Metro Detroit Chevy Dealers Top 10 New Restaurants & Dining Experiences list for its upbeat play on an Argentinian choripanería.
It is not hyperbolic to say that you can feel the heat at Puma, Detroit's Argentine street food newcomer.
At the request of chef-owner Javier Bardauil, contractors carved a gaping hole into the façade of the former Core City neighborhood auto garage for a live fire that would burn during service. The heat from the flames toasts your ankles as you approach the front door.
'The fire constantly burning is a statement,' Bardauil told me from a booth at Barda, the chef's first restaurant concept in the neighborhood, powered entirely by wood-burning fire. 'Smelling the wood fire before getting into the restaurant preps you for the experience that's coming.'
When he opened Barda in 2021, the restaurant met the demand for an upscale Latin American restaurant, specifically, one that honors Bardauil's Argentinian roots, and it made it's mark. Today, Bardauil is a two-time James Beard Award nominee, this year up for Best Chef Great Lakes for his work at Barda. Puma, the chef said, is Barda's little sister.
Whereas Barda was an effort to bring a more formal experience to an otherwise casual American diner — Bardauil calls out handhelds as the official dishes of American culture: think, hot dogs, hamburgers, sandwiches and pizza — Puma comes with no pretense.
'Using a fork and knife was the center at Barda,' he said. 'Puma was the opposite. Let's make this a more relaxed experience for everyone, but with the same approach of gathering around the fire.'
For starters, you'll pluck pieces of tallow-fried seafood from plates of jalea. You'll toss piping-hot fish, shrimp and crispy rings of squid into your mouth to avoid scorching your fingers. You'll grab a charred baguette and top it with a mound of sizzling white cheese dressed in an oily, golden coat from its time torched by the fire. And you'll clutch the choripán, the menu item that sparked the idea for Puma's very existence.
When Bardauil first gave me the scoop that he had plans to open Puma in 2023, he described it as a traditional choripanería, Argentina's casual watering hole for its national sausage-filled sandwich. In Buenos Aires, he said, the choripanería is humble — just a small space, where the bar is long and the parrillero or grillmaster knows your name. It's where Argentines go for a glass of wine and a choripán, traditionally made of a beef-pork sausage link split down the middle, kissed on the grill, brushed with an umami chimichurri and served on toasted roll.
'We made a god of the choripán,' he told me, noting that you can find a choripanería on any street in Argentina. 'It's our national pride. In every single corner of your life, you'll have a choripán with chimichurri.'
At Puma, seven black stools line a bar where cooks take a proprietary sausage blend created by Bardauil and the Eastern Market meatpacker Corridor Sausage Co. to the fire and assemble the restaurant's choripán. The bar was inspired by the counter service feel of a standard choripanería — with a little pizazz.
'I went too far,' he said about the flashy design of the space. At the choripán bar, your knees graze glossy black tile and a neon red speaker box hangs above your head. 'Puma is still simple but there is some complexity because once I got involved in the design, I got carried away.'
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Puma has maintained the energy level it debuted when it opened the weekend of Movement Electronic Music Festival. There's a nightly rotation of live DJs spinning house and techno music, and you'll enter through a narrow bar area where craft cocktails made with Latin flavors are flowing. The place is simple, but in the way a trust fund baby might wear a dingy T-shirt worth hundreds, or the way "effortless" makeup can take hours to create.
Another idea didn't pan out the way Bardauil planned. Initially, Puma was meant to explore the tension between fire and ice, introducing a cevichería where the restaurant's raw items would be assembled.
The culinary world often boasts complementary flavors. Chefs work closely with their supporting staff to cultivate balance and synergy in their menus. They'll turn to sommeliers and beverage directors to curate drink pairings and pastry chefs for desserts to culminate a cohesive story. Bardauil prefers contrast.
'I like battle,' he said, 'I like war. I like clash. I like friction. That's why we're burning things to the limit at Barda.' Puma, he said, lowers the volume on the fire and adds ice to unite the extremes of hot and cold.
Though the cevichería station didn't land for reasons he hasn't put his finger on, the chilled segment of the menu is still central to the restaurant's identity.
Plump mussels are open-face, revealing the beautiful indigo of their shells and a pungent mignonette of tomato, jalapeno, lemon and cilantro. Shrimp aguachile is perfectly spicy and served with a crunchy corn tortilla disc.
And a jicama salad is my personal favorite, balancing heat in piquancy and chill in temperature. Crisp slices of jicama burst with water, delivering the texture of a tart apple, sliced jalapenos offer spice and a sweet and sour broth has a hint of maple syrup that brings an unexpected sense of comfort.
Bardauil said the jicama salad is a canvas for the bounty of Michigan, noting that he rotates the supplementary ingredients in the dish with seasonal produce. 'I like to cook with my surroundings. With the jicama salad, I'll pick ingredients and use them as an expression of the season.' Summer, he said, may call for the addition of peaches. Fall might bring apples or pears.
In place of the cevichería, Bardauil repositioned the DJ booth, giving the artist a stage to perform. At the center of the restaurant now, the DJ is like a conductor, orchestrating the vibe of your dining experience on any given night.
He scientifically noted that humans are made up mostly of water, likening the vibration of music to dropping a coin into a pond and watching the ripples flow. 'Music lets you vibe,' he said.
The unifying element between Puma and Barda is Bardauil himself. This fashionable, music-loving, energetic creative with fire for flash. He accessorizes an all-black attire with bold statement glasses and he's a self-described entertainer who refers to his hiring process at both restaurants as 'casting.'
The talent, Bardauil's band of servers, bartenders and cooks, come to perform. In the glow of red neon lights, they'll play up the fact that the empanadas are fried in beef tallow as a healthier alternative to seed oils. And they'll advise on the smoky cocktail to set the mood. They'll even compliment your sense of style while bopping to the beats thumping your chair.
'My team is the first that I need to seduce,' Bardauil said. 'They are my first clients. They need to fall in love with my idea because it's the only way they're going to help me tell the story and then, they become part of the story.'
4725 16th St., Detroit. 313-819-6804; pumadetroit.com.
Save the Date: On Tuesday, May 27, Puma, the Detroit Free Press and Metro Detroit Chevy Dealers will host a Top 10 Takeover dinner. Stay tuned for ticket information at Freep.com.
For a chance to win five $100 gift cards to dine at restaurants on the 2025 Detroit Free Press/Metro Detroit Chevy Dealers Top 10 New Restaurants & Dining Experiences list, visit chevydetroit.com/community/giveaways/roy25.
This article originally appeared on Detroit Free Press: Puma in Detroit named Best New Restaurant 2025