Duo behind Pyrmont’s tiny taqueria bring small-batch Mexican spirits and Oaxacan food to Glebe

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Finally across all the cool hospitality job titles, such as mixologist? Don’t rest on your botanical laurels just yet because a mezcologist just rode into town.

Mezcologist Diana Farrera picked up her credentials at a centre for studies of mezcal in her native state of Oaxaca, Mexico.

Not only is Oaxaca the birthplace of the Mexican spirit made from agave, she likens the intense study of it to doing a masters of wine.

“You learn how to taste it, how to sell it ethically, everything about it,” she says.

From Friday, August 18, Sydneysiders will be able to tap her knowledge first-hand when Farrera and her partner, chef Manuel Diaz, open Nu’u by Nativo, a Mexican restaurant and mezcal bar in Glebe.

The duo kickstarted their ambitious Sydney plans last year, with the opening of Nativo Mexican, a tiny Pyrmont taqueria with just 14 outdoor seats.

While the tacos at the hole-in-the-wall venue gained plenty of foodie traction, Nu’u by Nativo on Glebe Point Road will give Diaz a chance to show off more of the skills he polished at upmarket restaurants in Mexico and France.

At its heart, the menu is an ode to Oaxaca and southern Mexican. “Oaxaca is a cultural capital, bohemian, the food full of strong flavours,” says Diaz. “Ask Mexicans where the best food in Mexico is and they’ll tell you to go to Oaxaca.”

Their opening menu will include grilled maize dough with bone marrow and pork shoulder, an octopus dish with a paste made from assorted dried chillies, and crispy pork belly with grilled drunken peaches and mezcal molasses. And of course, there’s mole, the cornerstone of Mexican kitchens.

“There are 30 different ingredients in it,” Diaz says of rich mole base served with a pepper stuffed with shiitake picadillo.

“We’re doing a green mole. It’s complex and delicate, if you don’t make it properly it’s not going to be balanced.”

Nu’u by Nativo’s 18 small dishes are designed to share and match with Farrera’s drinks program.

She’s imported small batch artisanal mezcals, and crafted a mezcal-based cocktail line-up named after famous women from Oaxaca.

Open lunch Fri-Sun; dinner Tue-Sat.

29 Glebe Point Road, Glebe, nubynativo.com.au