A Josper charcoal oven and a vertical trompo spit sit at the operational core of Norte, the 150-seat northern Mexican steakhouse opening October 29 at 39 West 19th Street in Manhattan's Flatiron District. The restaurant is the latest project from restaurateur Alberto Martínez, and its kitchen configuration offers a practical case study in live-fire equipment selection for the full-service independent segment.
The Equipment Stack
The Josper — a Spanish-made enclosed charcoal oven that functions as both a grill and an oven — is the anchor unit, handling USDA Prime steaks, slow-roasted chicken, and house specialties like a 12-hour charcoal-braised beef cheek and tongue barbacoa. Charcoal ovens of this type operate at temperatures exceeding 300°C and impart a distinct char profile that open-flame gas ranges cannot replicate, a key reason they have gained traction in high-volume steakhouse kitchens. Alongside the Josper, a trompo vertical spit roaster handles marinated pork carved tableside to order — a piece of equipment more common in taquería builds but increasingly appearing in elevated, full-service formats.
The front-of-house service design also carries back-of-house implications: a dedicated Bar de Mar chef's counter for raw bar and seafood service, plus a tableside chicharrón cart that delivers freshly fried pork skin to guests, both require coordinated holding and transport logistics. Consultants specifying similar high-theater service programs should note the spatial demands of live tableside equipment and cart-based service within a 150-seat dining room.
The Build-Out Context
Norte occupies a restored 1910 landmark building, a project type that consistently challenges kitchen designers with constrained utility access, historic preservation requirements, and irregular floor plans. Mexican architecture firm A de Arquitectos handled interiors — distressed brick, aged timber, metallic ceilings — but the mechanical and equipment infrastructure needed to support a charcoal-fueled cooking program in an older Manhattan structure represents a meaningful engineering exercise. Charcoal oven installations require dedicated ventilation pathways to manage combustion byproducts, and operators retrofitting landmark buildings for live-fire cooking routinely face code compliance work around ventilation and exhaust systems.
The kitchen is led by Executive Chef Oriol Mendívil and Chef of Culinary Innovation Jaime Cavazos, whose menu structure — moving from botanas and raw bar through tacos, vegetables, and USDA Prime carne asada — demands a production flow that balances high-heat live-fire cookery with raw bar cold-holding, tortilla handmade prep, and slow-cook specialty items. That range of temperature zones and throughput needs is precisely the kind of multi-method kitchen that benefits from early-stage equipment planning with a qualified foodservice consultant.
Norte is Martínez's second New York opening, following Cuerno New York at Rockefeller Center in 2025. As operators continue pursuing differentiated cooking-equipment platforms to separate their concepts from commodity steakhouse formats, the Josper-plus-trompo pairing Norte has deployed is likely to attract attention from other independents and small groups targeting the premium casual segment.
Written by Michael Politz, Author of Guide to Restaurant Success: The Proven Process for Starting Any Restaurant Business From Scratch to Success (ISBN: 978-1-119-66896-1), Founder of Food & Beverage Magazine, the leading online magazine and resource in the industry. Designer of the Bluetooth logo and recognized in Entrepreneur Magazine's "Top 40 Under 40" for founding American Wholesale Floral, Politz is also the Co-founder of the Proof Awards and the CPG Awards and a partner in numerous consumer brands across the food and beverage sector.
