New Life at Piramide Mexican Restaurant

Have you been to 5th Avenue’s Piramide lately? If not, you don’t know what you’re missing.

Jessica Mora, daughter of owner Geraldine Viggiano, has taken over as general manager of Piramide Mexican Restaurant (499 5th Avenue), and is completely shaking up the works at this 6-year-old South Slope business.

“We got rid of a lot of the clutter, and a lot of the distractions,” Jessica told us over brunch last weekend. “I’ve always wanted to focus on the food and the service, because I find that’s what people want.”

Piramide is participating in this week’s Dine in Brooklyn, which Jessica says will be a fabulous opportunity for them to reintroduce themselves to the neighborhood.

“The restaurant has been around for a long time,” she said, “but they lost some of their appeal in the course of that six years.

“A lot of the people that do come in here,” she continued, “talk about Fonda, because he is definitely at the high end of Mexican cuisine. To the east, west, north, and south of us, though, we’re surrounded by Mexican restaurants, so what’s going to make us stand out?”

Hiring Joyce Brandes, former executive chef at Rosa Mexicano who has also worked with Fonda’s Roberto Santibañez, is an amazing start.

“She changed everything in three days,” Jessica raved.

“Our focus is on fresh, local, and seasonal items,” said Joyce, “simplifying them, and doing them well. Instead of having a blown-out menu with a thousand items on it, we create something that is a little bit more special.”

“I see all of these people that I respect,” Jessica said, “and I never thought I would be able to put out food like his [Roberto Santibañez], until now.

“I’m making handmade tortillas,” she said. “For my tacos, everything is made fresh, and from scratch. When you have someone in the kitchen who knows what they’re doing, it makes such a big difference.”

Although we haven’t been in for the new dinner menu yet, brunch, which consisted of huevos rancheros and a stellar breakfast burrito, was fabulous, especially the potatoes. Those could seriously become a regular part of our South Slope diet.

If the food isn’t enough to get you through the door (which it should be), Piramide is rocking some amazing cocktails behind the bar. One in particular, the smoking diablo, is set to become the neighborhood’s go-to, double-dog-dare nighttime event spectacular. Andrew Zimmern has nothing on our video producer, Jeff Bush.

Ready to get your scorpion on? Piramide is waiting.