Casa Ventura to Replace Barrio on Seventh Avenue

The space on Seventh Avenue and Third Street has seen two restaurants in the past four months and soon will see a third—Casa Ventura.

First it was , and then , which was a mish-mash of small plates ranging from Italian, to Latin and German cuisine, but only lasted one month. However, the owners believe Casa Ventura, which will be a Latin American home cooking-style joint, will stick.

The owners, Jose Ventura and his wife Devonna Middeleer who recently took full ownership over the space from its majority partner, teamed up with local proprietors Courtney Ebner and Avi Kravitz, and are now in the midst of constructing their new restaurant.

The idea behind Casa Ventura, which will serve authentic Latin American food made with fresh, local ingredients, is to model the cuisine and space after Ventura's childhood home in Ponce, a town in the south side of Puerto Rico.

"It's going to be like the inside of an old Puerto Rican house—I want to bring you to my childhood home in P.R. and give you my home-cooked food," Ventura said, explaining that he conceived the idea for the restaurant with his brother, Giovanni, who is moving to Brooklyn from Puerto Rico to be the executive chef.

The restaurant’s interior was entirely gutted—making sure that Casa Ventura’s space will look completely different from Barrio and Mix.

The bar, which was on the right as you walk in, will be on the back wall, have a copper top and will specialize in rum and frozen mojitos, Ventura said while standing in his soon-to-be-restaurant last week.

Casa Ventura’s ceiling was made with reclaimed wood and has a rough and raw aesthetic, accentuated with naked Edison light bulbs.

There will be a big, high-top reclaimed wood table on the right wall with about eight stools. The rest of the tables will be regular height with seating for 85 people.

The patio, which is still surrounded by orange plastic from its Barrio days, will be black canvass all the way around with windows, except for the back wall, which will be solid and also made out of reclaimed wood. The patio will seat 45 people.

The food will be Latin American cuisine with a heavy focus on Puerto Rican dishes. Ventura said that they will serve mofongos, which are fried mashed plantains stuffed with your choice of chicken, shrimp and other meats and fish. They will also serve asopao de pollo, which is a stew-like soup made with chicken, ham, vegetables and rice.

They will also serve Colombian-style arepas con bacalao, tacos and quesadillas from Mexico, Cuban black beans and arroz moro from Santo Domingo. Ventura said one of their specialties will be Peruvian ceviche.

The reason for the complete renovation is because Ventura was tired of Barrio’s look, which he thought catered too much to kids, and wants to make the new restaurant a “sexy” destination for adults. He also thought Mix did not do well because the inside was essentially the same place as Barrio.

“The sign is what did it for me,” Ventura said of Mix’s banner on the outside of the restaurant. “How will your restaurant be taken seriously with a sign like that?”

Ventura said that they plan to open on April 21 and that he is looking forward to bring a new restaurant to the corner of Seventh Avenue and Third Street.

But what he is really excited about is the fact that he believes he will be giving Park Slope something it has never had before. 

“This is going to be like no other restaurant in the neighborhood,” Ventura said as he looked up at the exposed wood above his head. “This ceiling looks like it was taken from my home in Puerto Rico and shipped over to Brooklyn.”