Buenos Aires Café owners will open Fariñas Restaurant this spring in the previous Mango Peruvian Cuisine space

In late March or early April, Buenos Aires Café owners Oscar and Ainara Fariña will be opening a new concept in the previous Mango Peruvian Cuisine space (1001 Washington Ave.) called Fariñas Restaurant. Oscar Fariña described the restaurant as an “open-concept steakhouse.”

“The meats we’ll be cooking will be Argentinian-style on something that we call a stone grill,” Fariña explained. “My other restaurant has some of the concepts – Gauchos Steakhouse in Fairview Heights. We’ll concentrate on steaks, but do foods from all over the place. It’s a nice steakhouse with a different variety of foods from around the world.”  

Fariña pointed out that the restaurant will be a family affair. “This is a project between two brothers,” he said. “Me and my brother [Oswaldo] are uniting forces. He’s a very knowledgeable chef, and he’s moving from Vegas to St. Louis so he can do a restaurant with me.” Fariña added that he’s from Miami, and that his wife, Ainara, will be an owner alongside himself and Oswaldo.  

Fariña said he was looking for a location on Washington Avenue, and that this space stood out because it was previously a restaurant, which made for an easier transition. “It kind of has two different dining rooms. One looks more like a bar, and the other looks more spacious,” Fariña said. “We’re going to separate it, like two concepts in the same restaurant. One will be a little more upscale, and the other will look like a bar.” He added that the bar area will have TVs, but the dining room will not. 

At the moment, the Fariñas are looking at Tuesday through Saturday for dinner service. “We’re having a problem hiring people. We don’t even know if we’ll have a bartender,” Fariña said. But once the bar is up and running, they’ll offer wine, beer, margaritas, sangria and mixed drinks.