Best New Restaurants 2015: La Mulita

As a more-casual addendum to SoBro’s pan-American stunner Delicia, La Mulita packs a lot of moxie into its laminated-card menu of bar snacks and sharable baskets (all garnished with tufts of cilantro and slivered radishes). Nibbles like chimichurri sliders, chicken mole tamales, and fully loaded steak-and-egg chilaquiles bring to mind the freshest portable fare from a south-of-the-border street vendor, with a chef’s refined inspiration—like the bacon-wrapped Mexicano Dog, which wears pico de gallo, guacamole, chipotle mayo, and caramelized onion. La Mulita’s owners imagined this open room, walled in corrugated metal and concrete block, as the working-class model of exotic bar fare, the kind of place you might visit after working in the yard all day. Climb onto a red-vinyl stool at the bar and have some fish tacos and a beer, though the beach-resort cocktails (including a killer mai tai that’s worth the embarrassment of ordering a mai tai) prove equally refreshing.

Sound Bites

Concept: Cantina

Seats: 36

Owners: Nicole Harlan-Oprisu, Bill Ficca, Tim Oprisu, and Jaime Browning

Chef: Head chef Ricardo Martinez

Pedigree: The same group owns Delicia next door, and some of them operate 317 Burger, Northside Social, Northside Kitchenette, and Usual Suspects.

Try It If You Like: Adobo Grill

Check It Out: 5215 N. College Ave., 925-0677, lamulitaindy.com