DAY EFFAY DOGS $8
Bacon Wrapped Housemade Hot Dogs
with Cucumber Salsa Fresca & Jalapeno en Escabeche.
Served on a pretzel bun & with potato chips – all housemade!

Mother’s Day Special, Sunday May 12th
Pan Seared Halibut with Fried Artichokes, Red Quinoa & Rocoto Pepper Aioli

Memorial Day Pig Roast, Sunday May 26th
Don’t miss our famous Pig Roasts!
Served as an entree at $20, this is an achiote-rubbed, Caja China roasted pig, served with black beans, coconut rice, grilled pineapple salsa and house-made tortillas.

Join us for a special night on Wednesday, April 17th.

Guest Wine-Maker Edgardo Stallocca of
Siete Fincas Family Winery in  Mendoza, Argentina
will be here to discuss his wines and dine with us.

In addition to our regular menu, two flights will be featured with Chef Matt Colgan’s regional food pairings.

Ostiones Calientes Y Frios    4 for $10.
Raw Oysters served with Mango Salsa Fresca & 
Grilled Oysters served with Herb Butter

paired with

Torrontes, Siete Fincas, Mendoza, Argentina 2012
Sauvignon Blanc, Siete Fincas, Mendoza, Argentina 2012
$8 Flight

Parrillada Mixta    $18 / $32
Mixed Grill of Bacon-Wrapped Quail, Argentinian-Style Chorizo, & Lamb Chop
with Chimichurri & Roasted Potatoes

paired with

Malbec, Siete Fincas, Mendoza, Argentina 2011
Malbec / Cabernet, Siete Fincas, mendoza, Argentina 2009
Malbec Reserva, Siete Fincas, Mendoza, Argentina 2008
$20 Flight

Pastry Chef Elaine Osuna will be featuring a special dessert:
Elderflower Semifreddo with Strawberries

Reserve online or call 510.479.1208

********************

PIG ROAST ON SUNDAY APRIL 28th.
RESERVE NOW!

(Stay tuned for our Wednesday night specials, & Cinco de Mayo Celebration.)

The next stop on our culinary tour is Venezuela. Come to Rumbo on Wednesday, March 27th for these Venezuelan specials:

Tequenos (Crispy Cheese Sticks with Guacasalsa)
Turkey Arepa (Venezuelan Corn Cake with Turkey Picadillo)

There’s always room for dessert:
Arepitas Dulces (Hot Venezuelan Donuts with Crema de Dulce de Leche)

Drink Specials to Accompany!

Easter Sunday Specials.

Sunday, March 31st is Easter Sunday. The weather is surely to be beautiful here in Oakland, and it will be a perfect day to bring your families in to Rumbo for an Easter Feast!

We will be serving:

Chamoy & Pineapple Glazed Ham
with Grilled Asparagus and Tropical Root Gratin

& for Dessert:
Capirotada (Warm Mexican Bread Pudding with Queso Fresco Ice Cream).

Stay tuned for the next stop on our culinary tour

& for our upcoming PIG ROASTS!

Come to Peru with us on Wednesday March 20th!
We will be serving Peruvian specials this night only!
Yellow Tail Jack Tiradito (with blood oranges & fennel),
Causa (Tricolor Potatoes with Shrimp Salad),
& Lomo Saltado (Steak & Peppers with Purple Peruvian Potatoes),
& drink specials.

We also invite you and your families to celebrate Easter Sunday here. Our Easter special is a Chamoy & Pineapple Glazed Ham with Grilled Asparagus and Tropical Root Gratin. Reserve now!

Rumbo is now on Instagram! Follow us: rumbo_al_sur.

In case you haven’t experienced our popular Pig Roasts, here’s what to expect:
Served as an entree at $20, this is an achiote-rubbed, Caja China roasted pig, served with black beans, coconut rice, grilled pineapple salsa and house-made tortillas. 

Easter is coming up on Sunday March 31st. We will be celebrating with Specials. Details coming soon!

Interview With Rumbo Al Sur’s Matt Colgan

Sabor del Barrio: An article series exploring the Latino food scene in the East Bay —  

Walk into Rumbo al Sur on a Friday night and the bar is packed with patrons sipping margaritas while samba music sings through the speakers, and plates of ceviche, empanadas, and churros dot the tables. Opened in 2011 by the team of A Cote restaurant, Rumbo al Sur offers a tapas-style menu of dishes and wine from Mexico and South America, and cocktails made with fresh juices and Latin American spirits.

Head chef Matt Colgan is very passionate about Mexican food— he even cites the beginning of his career as a cook and delivery boy for a Mexican restaurant. Since then he’s come a long way: after restaurant work in Europe and San Francisco, Colgan has kept Mediterranean tapas restaurant A Cote busy since it opened 11 years ago. I sat down with Colgan to ask him about Rumbo al Sur’s menu, and how he thinks Latin American cuisine is making its mark on the culinary scene in Oakland and beyond. Colgan’s answers have been edited for clarity and length.

Visión Hispana: How did your background in cooking lead you to opening Rumbo al Sur?
Colgan: We’ve had the same team at A Cote for 11 years, and we kept asking ourselves if we could do anything else in Oakland, what would it be? What we do here is Latin American  but we all have this love in particular for Mexican food and culture— we all have different connections to it. My general manager grew up in San Diego, our pastry chef has a Mexican grandmother, and I’ve always loved the food. I’ve been cooking it from the beginning, and working in California I’ve had so many opportunities to work with people from so many different regions of Mexico. Mexican food is the thing we eat for lunch every day. Someone makes tacos, someone makes barbacoa, someone else makes birria – everyone brings something different to the table, so we thought this would be it and we decided to start Rumbo al Sur.

Visión Hispana: For people that haven’t had your food, can you describe a dish that reflects what the restaurant is about?
Colgan: There are certain dishes that have been on the menu since the very beginning. One that has stayed on from the beginning is the baby back ribs. We do this rub with canela and cloves, ancho chile powder, some brown sugar and salt, we let that sit on them overnight, we smoke them for about four hours, and then we make a tamarind guava base glaze, that comes with a simple jicama slaw on the side.

Visión Hispana: When you’re not cooking, where do you go to eat?
Colgan: Chefs are a funny group of people. Sometimes you just really want a taco from a taco truck. You want the simplest, most casual, broken down kernel of goodness. You just might go down to the Sinaloa truck and get a few al pastor tacos and be thoroughly satisfied. And sometimes my favorite thing is to go to Japanese food because it’s just so different from what I prepare.

Visión Hispana: What role do you think Latin American food plays in the Oakland culinary “boom”?
Colgan: I think it’s playing a really fun role in the culinary scene of Oakland, because it’s a cuisine and a culture that lends itself to great music and a great atmosphere, like when it’s busy in here and this bar fills up, people are really having a good time. I mean, the margarita may be the best drink ever invented. I want people to come in and have a sense of discovery, a sense of fun. I think that when people go out to have good food, they want to have a good time too, and that’s what you have to provide people with.

Visión Hispana: What do you hope that people have learned or experienced after having dinner here?
Colgan: Hopefully people come away with an open mind about this type of cuisine. Things have popped up that are out of the mold, it’s not just enchiladas, rice and beans anymore. Mexico, just to take an example of one of the cuisines we do, is on a regional level just as diverse as Italy. We started getting into this Italian regional diversity about 15 to 20 years ago and I think now people are starting to realize the same thing with Mexico. It is that complex, and there are that many differences between regional cuisine. That alone gives you such a broad spectrum of flavors and techniques to play with.

A month without a pig roast is just too long, so we’re taking out the Caja-China and bringing back our pig roasts. Come join us!

Sunday, January 27th
4:30 – 9:00pm

Oakland Restaurant Week
January 18th – 27th

We are so excited to be participating in Oakland’s Restaurant Week this year. During this time several restaurants are offering a prix fixe menu to promote Oakland’s finest.

We will be offering the following 3-course dinner for $30:

Our regular menu will be available along with these New Year’s Specials:

Bronzino Veracruzana
Mediterranean Seabass with Mexican Rice, Black Beans & Salsa Veracruzana

Goat Birria
with Good Mother Stallard Beans, Smoked Salsa

Seafood Moqueca
with Scallops, Prawns, Clams, Mussels & Coconut Rice

Gaucho Steak
Grilled & Smoked New York Steak with Yucca Fries, Collard Greens & Chimichurri

Thank you for a wonderful 2012 – and looking forward to a fantastic 2013!!

Happy Holidays!

The Mayans predicted the world’s demise this December. We want to go out with a bang, so we’re throwing an End of World Party on Wednesday 12-12-12. To honor the Mayan’s prediction, we will be serving Yucatecan specials for this night only!

Beef Heart skewers with Rocoto Pepper sauce
Panuchos “Poc Chuc” (Grilled Pork on black bean stuffed tortillas with habanero-tomato salsa.)
Corvina “Tikin Xic” (Fish cooked in banana leaves with black beans, coconut rice, and onion escabeche.)

Drink Specials:
Flaming Cool Air – Oh’s (set on fire with a float of 151!)
& $8 Gran Combos

December also marks the end of 2012! Do you have New Year’s plans yet? Even though this New Year’s is on a Monday, Rumbo al Sur will be open – because we never pass on an opportunity to party! We will be serving New Year’s specials you don’t want to miss. Reserve now!

Sunday, November 11th is our One Year Anniversary.

We thank all of our patrons for making this a fantastic first year. Since we know you all loved our Summer Whole Pig Roasts, we are doing another in a NEW STYLE! Come celebrate our birthday and reserve now!

The Mayan calendar predicts that the end of the world will come on Wed 12.12.12 and we fully intend to go out with a bang. All evening we will be serving Yucatecan specialties… food items and cocktails.

You definitely don’t want to miss the end of the world!

As always we welcome you for Happy Hour and our very popular Taco Tuesdays.

Happy Hour is Wed, Thurs, Fri, Sat, & Sun from 5:30 – 6:30pm, and 10-11pm on Fri & Sat.
We are currently offering $5 Margaritas, Caipirinhas, and Sangria.
Spiced Nuts $3, Chicharrón de Pollo $6, & Queso Fundido $8

Our Taco menu changes frequently so please do check it out online. This deal is 3 tacos for $9, and $6 Margaritas.