On the table: Eivissa

I just got off the phone with chef Dudley Nieto, and he said something that I never thought I'd hear him say: 

"I'm not going to move. No, this is it. This is the place I want to stay, to retire, to be there, to enjoy my life."

He was talking about his new restaurant Eivissa. And if the fact that Nieto plans to stay at this restaurant for the rest of his life isn't surprising enough (after all, this is the man that has been at the helm of almost every upscale Mexican place in the city, including Zapatista, Adobo Grill, Zocalo and the abruptly-shuttered Xel-Ha), here's another surprise: Here, he'll be cooking Spanish food.

"My father was from Spain, and my mother was from Mexico," he says. "[Growing up], I actually ate more Spanish food than anything else."

Is your world rocked yet?? Well calm down, because from here things get a little more Nietoish. At Eivissa, he plans to organize his menu much like how he organized the menu at Zocalo—that is, regionally. His focus will be on pintxos from Catalonia (which are also attributed to the Basque region), but he'll also serve dishes from areas like Rioja and even foods specific to Barcelona (a.k.a. more contemporary cuisine). In short, Nieto says that he simply wants to "show [the city] what we can do when it comes to regional Spanish cuisine."

Eivissa will be located at 1531 N Wells St, and will seat between 175-200 people. The plan is for it to open in early June...and close when Nieto is old and gray.