Bolero starts serving South American cuisine in Midtown next month

Bolero Latin Cuisine Tour, a restaurant featuring the tastes of countries like Chile, Argentina, and Peru, is shooting for a mid-October opening in Midtown's former Mid City Grill space.

It's the next project for Vicente Vazquez and Roberto Caceres, the owners of downtown's Spanish-Cuban fusion concept, Vicenete's Cuban Cuisine. Caceres will also serve as the chef at the 130-seat (including patio) Bolero, and he's bringing on his son, Robert, as general manager.

Robert Caceres says to expect a menu that features five different varieties of traditional Peruvian ceviche, steaks similar to those in Argentina (the best in the world), 15 types of Latin-themed tapas, four new paella recipes, and other South American flavors that are rare in Detroit.

"We saw an opportunity in Midtown in an up and coming area, just like when we opened Vicente's in 2005. I don’t know of any restaurant in Detroit that has traditional Latin flair like we'll have," Caceres tells us.

The Caceres family hails from the Chilean coast and is particularly proud of their ceviche menu. Peruvian-style ceviche is prepared with leche de tigre, which translates into "tigers' milk", though there's no milk. The leche de tigre is a lime-based marinade mixed with lime, cilantro, onion, chili pepper, and salt that essentially cooks the dish's fish, shrimp, calamari, or other seafood. That's served with corn, sweet potatoes, and garlic toast to make up what Caceres describes a "refreshing appetizer."

Among the highlights in the tapas selection is the papas a la huancaina, a potato dish with mild peppers, black olives, fresh cheese, and hard boiled egg that's laced with huancaina, a creamy sauce made from mild yellow chile peppers.

Caceres describes the yuca rellenas as a cassava root-based dish consisting of a pan seared garlic mash mixed with wild mushroom duxelles, beef picadillo, and romesco.

The menu will also hold three seafood, poultry, and beef entrees, and the bar is still a work in progress. But Caceres says to expect plenty of good Argentine and Chilean wines, Peruvian pisco, the same signature mojito as Vicente's, and the same sangria recipe.

The restaurant will be open Monday through Thursday from 11 a.m. to 10 p.m.; Friday and Saturday from 11 a.m. to 11 p.m.; and Sunday from noon to 9 p.m.