One of Raleigh’s most anticipated restaurants of 2025 opens soon
Years after it was first announced, one of Raleigh’s most anticipated restaurants opens soon. The owners have decided to call it bad luck.
Mala Pata, a collaboration among a handful of the Triangle’s biggest names in food and beverage, will begin serving customers at its Gateway Plaza location on Wednesday, May 14. Attached to the restaurant but with its own entrance and atmosphere is Peyote, a bar focusing on agave spirits and craft cocktails. Together, the bar and restaurant occupy 5,500 square feet.
Angela Salamanca of Centro, Gallo Pelón, Ex-Voto and Patty Boy is the the culinary and community ambassador. Marshall Davis, Salamanca’s longtime business partner, is heading the agave spirits program. Eric Montagne of Locals Seafood and Standard Beer + Food will be culinary adviser, and Zack Gragg (also of Locals and Standard) is executive chef and general manager.
“Everything that you do is informed by the things that you have already done,” Salamanca said. “So I think some of that is going to be part of how we cook, how we drink, how we create. But, you know, this is a collaborative process and a collective of different folks. So I think that the product will be different just because of that.”
The name Mala Pata may be unusual for a new business, but the co-owners see it as a way to remember their shared experiences.
Their connection to Durham Food Hall facilitated their meeting. As they worked to keep their businesses afloat through the COVID-19 pandemic, naturally conversations arose about what was working and what wasn’t, and what they would do differently or the same if faced with another extreme situation.
Talks evolved into collaborating on a brand new concept, stemming from a shared mission and ethos. Earlier plans were more elaborate, but over time, the scope was narrowed.
“It’s landed exactly where it should have been in the beginning,” Davis said.
Mexican-inspired menu
At the heart of the food dishes is masa made from heirloom corn grown in Mexico, where the mezcal is also sourced, and produced through the ancient process of nixtamalization. Many of the dishes are inspired by Salamanca and Davis’ travels to Mexico.
“For us, it’s like, how do we bring something that we love here?” Salamanca said. “And that just kind of started the dream of, how do we do it? How do we learn it? How do we make it happen?“
Masa will be used to create authentic Mexican dishes including tacos, enchiladas and flautas. One standout — a grilled whole fish with salsas, fresh tortillas, pickled onions, sauces and a mango slaw — is based on a dish from the renowned Mexico City restaurant Contramar.
“We do want to promote a family-style way of eating, where you order lots of things and share it with the people that you’re with,” Davis said.
But other dishes will be more “playful,” as Davis called them. There will be tuna tartacos, made with crunchy blue corn tortillas, and Cheerwine mole on the enchiladas.
The reliance on Mexico as a source of inspiration reaches the bar menu, too, which contains multiple tequila- and mezcal-based cocktails, carrying on the tradition from Gallo Pelón, which closed Monday, May 5. Visitors will find among the options traditional and spicy margaritas, an old fashioned made with tequila añejo and crema de mezcal, a mezcal mule and two frozen drinks: coconut daiquiri and sour mangonada.
Homage to Gallo Pelón
It’s not just the beverages that allude to the now-closed mezcal mecca in downtown Raleigh. Hanging on one wall in the main dining room of Mala Pata are a few of the pots previously housed at Gallo Pelón. One pot was created for every person who donated to the campaign to help get the mezcaleria past the finish line.
There’s also a quiote, the tall stalk that grows upward from the center of the agave plant toward the end of the plant’s life, from Gallo Pelón.
‘A place that you feel comfortable in’
Murals by Durham’s Gabriel Eng-Goetz adorn the interior and exterior of the restaurant.
A large painting of a rabbit and a corn occupy a full wall at the rear of the restaurant, one of the main focal points for diners as they enter the dining room. Corn, of course, reflects the food served at Mala Pata. And the rabbit is connected to a popular Mexican legend about agave spirits and plays off of the luck motif, again alluding to the restaurant’s name.
Handmade lamps from Colombia were created specially for the restaurant. It took the artist about three months to craft the fixtures, which are made of corn husks.
Throughout the dining room, which has room for 50, walls are painted a warm yellow tone, and large windows facing the alleyway allow in plenty of light to illuminate the space.
“It’s really beautiful at night, really comes together,” Salamanca said.
A narrow walkway connects Mala Pata to Peyote, but the bar has its own personality. Walls are painted a muted purple, and lights installed in the shelving behind the bar will make the space glow.
There are two windows at Peyote — one that opens into the kitchen, allowing for easy transfer of to-go orders or chips, and another that opens to Mala Pata, so servers can easily grab drinks.
Peyote will have a handful of seats open for dining, and a handful more inside for people just ordering drinks, along with outdoor tables. There will also be a drink rail so that when the large garage-style door is opened, guests can stand on either side.
Davis sees Peyote as a bookend for the restaurant. It can stand on its own, but it’s also there if Mala Pata customers want a drink before dinner or a nightcap.
Mala Pata and Peyote share public and employee bathrooms, a walk-in cooler and a dish-washing station with neighbor Fiction Kitchen, the popular vegan and vegetarian restaurant opening soon at Gateway Plaza.
“We want a place that you feel comfortable in,” Davis said. “And our service is going to be very personal, but laid back.”
Mala Pata location & opening
Mala Pata will be open for dinner at 2431 Crabtree Blvd. in Raleigh 5-10 p.m. Wednesday-Saturday starting May 14, and lunch and weekend brunch will be added later.
Peyote will be open 5-11 p.m. Wednesday-Saturday.
This story was originally published May 7, 2025 at 9:49 AM.
