After seven years in the back streets of Sunshine North, Maria Escudero and Marco De La Plaza have relocated their cafe-slash-food-store-slash-bottle-shop, Latin Foods and Wines, to an expansive Ballarat Road premises on the Deer Park commercial strip.
The new space is much bigger, although they have retained the same down-to-earth style: wine, beer and liquor on one side; a deli, servery, kitchen and cafe on the other; groceries down the back.
As part of the move they've broadened their range of South American specialties such as mate tea and wines from Chile, Argentina and Spain with a few new lines to cater to Italian and Maltese communities – think cheese, cured meats and pasta.
The blackboard menu of Sunshine North has been reprised at Deer Park in whiteboard form: South American-style sandwiches and burgers as well as empanadas, arepas (cakey corn flatbreads) and churros.
Breakfasts and dinners are in the pipeline but for now try the chacarero sandwich: tender sliced beef, melted cheese, mayonnaise, tomato, green beans and green chilli in a house-made bun called pan amasado.
Open daily 8am-8pm.
809 Ballarat Road, Deer Park, 03 8358 5503, latinfoodsandwines.com.au
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