The Basement joins the Mexican wave

Sydney's Mexican-food epidemic is spreading, muscling in on one of Sydney's iconic live-music venues. The incoming owner of The Basement, at Circular Quay, has plans to serve tacos with lashings of jazz.

David Wallace, the restaurant consultant currently on a buying spree of Sydney food ventures, recently adding Steel Bar & Grill to his portfolio, settles on his acquisition of The Basement in April, with plans to add the Mexican restaurant by May.

Wallace isn't just opening a restaurant at the live-music venue, he's bought La Lupita, the award-winning Mexican restaurant in Canterbury that serves chilli-and-lime watermelon salad and now has its own food truck.

Former La Lupita owner Attila Yilmaz will open a branch of the restaurant at The Basement. A spokeswoman for Wallace says Yilmaz will run the Mexican operations for the group.