Sabe A Hogar: The Culinary Passport of Delicia

If you happen to be walking down College Avenue, you might be drawn towards the tantalizing aromas of SoBro’s Delicia like a pie on the proverbial windowsill. This pastoral yet chic Latin American eatery weaves together multicoastal cuisines of Spain, the Americas, and the Caribbean—a concept that stands out in a city flush with singular dining experiences. 

At the helm is operating partner and proprietor Nicole Harlan-Oprisu, whose experience working farm stands and Broad Ripple restaurants has helped her build community-focused experiences. Also the operating partner of The Northside Kitchenette and The Northside Social, Harlan-Oprisu says the conceptualization of Delicia required an “eat local” mindset. 

“When we first opened, there really wasn’t anything like it in the city,” she says. “Over the years, there had been a couple upscale Mexican style restaurants that were just Mexican, that sort of came and went. We really looked at the neighborhood and thought, ‘What is something that doesn’t exist at all around here?’ Which is something we’ve always tried to do in all of our concepts.”

Many contend that the margarita at Delicia is the best in the city. One of their signature cocktails, Fire and Ice, is a flavor sojourn that packs a wallop. Harlan-Oprisu explains, “It’s an ice ball made out of three different kinds of chilies. And then the drink itself is essentially a margarita with a hibiscus, basil, habanero reduction. So as the ice ball melts, the drink gets hotter and hotter and hotter. I worked on the drink for probably a year before we opened and it’s been on the menu ever since.”

Delicia’s food is a culinary passport for the pallette. Throw a dart at this menu and you’ll hit a dish that’s not only beautifully plated, but ripe with ancestral influence. “You know, we call it New Latin because it’s not exact copies of original dishes. It’s sort of our version of what those flavors mean from those countries blended together with what we do,” says Harlan-Oprisu.

Dishes of both land and sea are devised by a seasoned team of Delicia veterans for whom no detail is too small. The crown jewel of the menu however is the empanadas—barbacoa beef with a velvety texture swaddled in pillowy puff pastry and generously smothered with a robust habanero sauce that tastes of hearth and home. Diners who have only ever experienced the frozen hockey puck variety will never be able to go back. 

Harlan-Oprisu hopes Delicia will continue to be an exceptional slice of SoBro’s culinary pie through the five-star service of her passionate team. “I hope guests walk away with a genuine sense of hospitality,” she says. “Because at the end of the day, these experiences are a small blip in our time. But for you, it’s an event, and that’s why we work so hard to try and make things as perfect as we can. So I hope people leave with that feeling, and I hope people want to come back to replicate it.”