There are foods that have defined Medellín, like the national dish that hails from here, bandeja paisa (a plate stacked with beans, plantains, chorizo, a fried egg, avocado, and chicharrón) and steaming bowls of hearty sancocho, or stew. But the city’s kitchens today hum with something new, thanks to a wave of creative energy that has reshaped the Colombian city over the past decade.
Much of that has been concentrated in El Poblado, long a trendsetting neighborhood, whose dining scene is now made up of tasting menus, fermentation labs, and cocktail dens. The newest addition is Wake Medellín, a $65 million endeavor with a 128-room wellness-focused hotel and some of the city’s most exciting restaurant openings coming this summer. At its core is Boro, the debut Medellín restaurant from celebrated chef Jaime David Rodríguez of Cartagena’s pioneering Celele, where the menus trace Colombia’s ecosystems from the Pacific coast to the Amazon basin via the Andes mountains and beyond. Test Kitchen Lab, the chef’s counter by Adolfo Cavalie and bartender Daniela Alvarado, expands into a larger, lab-like space dedicated to Colombian-only sourcing and fermentation research. Heavyweights such as Lima’s popular Osso by master butcher Renzo Garibaldi join local favorites like Krudo Viches y Vinilos, with a variety of other concepts spinning out across the complex.
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