By Carla Zanoni
DNAinfo Reporter/Producer
INWOOD — When Sazones restaurant opens its door in early September, it will have the honor of being the northernmost restaurant on Broadway.
And though that’s miles away from downtown’s nightlife scene, the restaurant's owners are hoping the latest in their series of uptown eateries will bring them one step closer to realizing their dream of creating Inwood’s very own “Meatpacking District.”
“We wanted to bring something nicer to the area,” co-owner Julian Sanchez said, in Spanish, of the upscale Dominican restaurant.
Even behind closed doors, Sazones, which means "flavor," stands out on the stretch of Broadway above 216th. The area is otherwise relegated to used car lots, car washes, a tax prep site and its culinary competition, Twin Donut, a 24-hour doughnut shop on the corner of 218th Street.
The owners’ other restaurants and clubs, Tabaco y Ron and Vintich, have also been pioneers in the area, opening posh looking spaces along an industrial stretch of 10th Avenue under the elevated 1 train and near the MTA’s train yard.
For some Inwood residents, like Lyana Fernandez, the arrival of new restaurants in the area is welcome, no matter how far fetched the owners' dreams of becoming the next city's next hotspot.
“I've always been all for making the neighborhood more appealing to downtowners,” she wrote in an e-mail, adding she doesn’t “feel this neighborhood is in any danger of losing it's diversity or uniqueness (okay fine, ‘sazón’) for becoming ‘trendier.’"
By the looks of it, perhaps the owners recognize this as well. Although they plan to serve dinner, beer and wine until 2 a.m., so long as its liquor license application goes through, Sanchez said the group hopes to build a brisk lunch business for local workers.
“We’ll serve Dominican cuisine in a place that’s not too formal, but also not as informal as some of the more traditional restaurants in the area,” Sanchez, who owns Sazones with co-owners William Segura and Ismael Garcia. “We want to bring something new to the area, not just what has been here before.”
