The menu at Anafre, a new project by Chef Alfredo Solis that opens today, functions a lot like a tour of all the places the restaurateur has lived in Mexico and the U.S. (and, okay, maybe a few places he’s dreamed up entirely).

There is grilled octopus and shellfish that call to mind the beaches of Nayarit, where Solis was used to eating fresh fish for nearly every dinner. There is buttery lobster that reminds him of the dishes he used to cross the border for when he lived in San Diego, the cheap and delicious plates common to small restaurants in Baja California. There’s a spicy, citrusy ceviche that reminds him of his time in Mazatlán, a coastal town in the Mexican state of Sinaloa (on the menu, it’s called Sinaloa Vuelve a la Vida, or Sinaloa comes back to life).

But the nexus of the menu, and the concept of the restaurant that’s replacing Solis’ Cuban venture Little Havana, isn’t actually about any place where Solis himself has lived. Instead, it’s an homage to a small town a few hours outside Mexico City, called Cahuacán—the pueblo where Solis’ mother was born, and where she grew up cooking for a house full of siblings.

“One of my inspirations was to cook like my mother. She grew up in a rural area, and her mother died very early, when she was about six years old. So she grew up cooking for her brothers and sisters,” Solis tells DCist in Spanish.”They cooked over coals and over firewood, because there was no electricity and no running water.”

That cooking method is the focal point around which nearly every item on the menu turns, not to mention the name of the restaurant. “Anafre” is a portable charcoal stove, the kind  his mother and her family used for cooking.

All that is to say: when you go to Anafre, expect an array of charred and flavorful meats, vegetables, and seafood served still steaming, and usually with a side of rice and beans and a huge flour tortilla. The chorizo, steak, and chicken are all delicious, but Solis has created a wide variety of seafood options that he’s hoping his patrons will order with greater frequency than at his other two D.C. restaurants, Logan Circle’s El Sol and Mezcalero, which is just a few blocks away from Anafre.

“I love fish. I love seafood and fresh food. I’ve always wanted to have a restaurant where I could cook a lot of fish, but at Mezcalero and El Sol, even if I put it on the menu, people don’t really order it,” he says, speculating that Americans don’t trust that a Mexican restaurant will have fresh fish. “So I really hope that people will give me an opportunity, and give an opportunity to this concept.”

Solis also has several tacos on the menu, entirely different from what’s on offer at Mezcalero or the popular taqueria next door, Taqueria Habanero. The fillings are guisados, which means they’re cooked and served in stew (Epicurious describes guisados as “something braised, stewy, homey, and delicious.”) The tacos are made with tortillas made in-house out of blue maize.

Another standout is Solis’ queso fundido cooked in a banana leaf, common in Cauhuacán and other parts of Mexico because the leaf can withstand contact with the coals. Instead of the usual chorizo, Solis made a vegetarian-friendly option filled with three different kinds of cheeses, corn, epazote, and huitlacoche, a kind of blue fungus that grows on corn (it’s sometimes called “Mexican truffle”). It’s also served with a basket of blue maize tortillas.

Anafre’s bar manager, Heriberto Casasanero, is the same one who created the rum-heavy drink menu at Little Havana. While there’s still a fair amount of rum on the Anafre’s cocktail menu, the stars of the show are tequila and mezcal, with a real standout moment for Mexican whiskey. The old fashioned de mole picante is just what it sounds like, made with a Mexican whiskey and a slightly spicy mole made by Solis. The piña colada viaja a Mexico is a kind of Mexican twist on the classic Cuban drink (which Little Havana was known for serving inside of a hollowed-out pineapple). It’s made with mezcal, rum, coconut cream, pineapple juice, and a chili powder seasoning called Tajín.

There are small moments throughout the bar menu that call to mind Little Havana, and throughout the restaurant, too. Out of affection and nostalgia, Solis left a part of Little Havana’s characteristic mural intact: a neon-colored block spelling out the word “bienvenido” set starkly against the red clay color of Anafre’s walls.

“I feel satisfied with what I did. Really, really happy,” Solis says of his Cuban restaurant. “I don’t feel disappointed even for a moment. It was a really crazy project, making a Cuban restaurant, but I would do it again.”

Solis says he feels there just isn’t a large enough market for Cuban food on the strip of 14th Street where he opened Little Havana. He’s hopeful that another venture into Mexican food, wholly different from the city foods he makes at his other restaurants and perhaps his most creative and ambitious project to date, will yield better results.

Anafre, even in the simple design of the restaurant, does feel like a completely new project, one almost disconnected from Mezcalero, where busy murals dominate the walls and bring to mind the chaos and liveliness of a city. The new restaurant is painted a red-orange clay color, and the dark wooden booths and tables are surrounded by hanging plants. On one wall, there is a huge hanging cross bearing an image of Jesus Christ, and on the other side, facing it, is a framed portrait of the Virgen de Guadalupe.

“It’s very silly, but I think it looks like my mom’s house and my grandma’s house,” says Solis. “Mezcalero is a bit more hipster. This place feels a little bit more serious, more like a place where a family would live. I feel happy here. I feel calm when I come in.”

Solis came up with the design himself, which he said reflects something about who he is, where he comes from, and what he believes.

“I feel like with this project, people will understand me,” he says. “This is always what I really wanted, and it took me a long time to get here.”

Anafre is at 3704 14th Street NW. Open Sunday-Thursday 11am-10pm, Friday & Saturday 11am-12am.

Anafre Dinner Menu_final1 Copy by Natalie Delgadillo on Scribd

Anafre Wine and Beer Menu_black Copy by Natalie Delgadillo on Scribd

Anafre Cocktail Menu_black1 Copy by Natalie Delgadillo on Scribd