Nicolás Cocina de Herencia gets ready to open -- and to raise the bar even higher.

Ask Susana Alvarez’s family if the chef-owner of Villa Azteca is a perfectionist and the response is swift. Five heads nod – including hers – and four voices, coming almost in unison, provide confirmation.

Alvarez just chuckles. Her dedication to layering flavors and elevating even the most humble dish turned the downtown Salinas restaurant into a Michelin-worthy destination. With the family’s second location, Alvarez and her son, Chef Andres Becerra, will be holding the kitchen to an even higher standard.

“My mom has more of a traditional approach,” Becerra says. “I introduce modern techniques and refine the dishes. That’s the idea – we’re going to be even better.”

Nicolás Cocina de Herencia is expected to open by mid or late October, depending. Already they’ve been forced to scrap three different planned dates. But with only a couple of outstanding permits and the final piece of decor in the process of being framed, there is a growing sense of certainty.

The new restaurant will occupy a corner of Carmel Plaza, a space that previously housed Sur La Table. The size of the kitchen, which allowed room for a wood-fired grill, sold them on the location. And the location has Becarra and Alvarez eager to up the culinary ante.

Becerra is still playing with the menu. But he speaks of the familiarly exotic huitlacoche, as well as ingredients less commonly associated with Mexican cuisine, such as caviar. Recently he prepared a pomegranate aguachile and chilled oysters.

“I’m excited because it’s a different stage,” Alvarez says in Spanish through her son’s translation. “People from all over the world come here. We want to show them that Mexican is more than tacos and burritos.”

Yet the foundation remains traditional, maybe not street-level tacos and burritos, but complex flavors coaxed from family and regional recipes, and a style handed down through generations. Nicolás Cocina de Herencia is a reference to heritage – more specifically, family heritage.

“The way that she taught us to cook was a pinch of this, a pinch of that and taste,” Becerra explains. “And that’s how we teach cooks. We don’t have a recipe book.”

Alvarez could fill several menus with her trove of ideas. She learned from her mother, who was not much of a cook – at least to start with.

When Alvarez’s father married, his new wife was a kitchen novice. It was his father who introduced her to family favorites and sparked a zeal for cooking that carried on.

Andres Becerra was similarly lost when he became sous chef at Villa Azteca. “I didn’t know how to cook,” he says, admitting that he was unprepared for the pace of a professional kitchen. “Villa has been a school for me,” he adds. “I’m starting from experience now.”

Like Villa Azteca, Nicolás is a family affair. Alvarez’s husband, Leo Becerra, is on board. Daughter Adilenny Becerra is polished at the front of the house. And son Marco Becerra also plays a role.

“As a family, everyone is participating in different ways,” observes Leo Becerra. “It’s a team.”

As with Villa Azteca, they each contributed to the design, the grunt work, the menu and all the other tasks, working through disagreements.

The Nicolás space is warm and inviting, but with a gilded elegance and an edge of modernity – another departure from the original restaurant. It will have a full bar and a wall of glass that provides a view of the stainless kitchen. It is a handsome space.

A second restaurant was not originally in the plans. But persistent guests begged the family to open a Carmel location. And with the success of Villa Azteca, they are more comfortable with the idea.

Once word of the second location became known, Marco reports that anticipation has been great. Every day they field questions about its scheduled opening.

“It feels like a lot of pressure,” Andres says. “But it’s the type that makes you want to deliver.”

NICOLÁS COCINA DE HERENCIA is located in the Carmel Plaza, Ocean Avenue and Mission Street, Carmel.