When What the Fork caught up with Javier Sandes last year, he’d just shut down arguably the most badass mobile food business in the Bay Area: Primo’s Parrilla, a streetside operation wherein Sandes grilled beef tri-tips and whole spitchcocked chickens over an open flame on top of said parrilla (an Argentinian-style grill).
The setup was so badass (or at least hard to pin down, as it was neither truck nor restaurant nor conventional food “cart”) that the city of Emeryville cried foul. So Sandes decided he would instead introduce Argentinian asado — i.e. barbecue — to the East Bay through a brick-and-mortar restaurant of his own.
Vegetable empanada. Credits: Luke Tsai Alfajor from Javi’s Cooking (at Room 389). Credits: Luke Tsai Javier Sandes grills up some chickens at a private outdoor event (via Facebook).
