Photo by The Burrow
Audio By Carbonatix
Sometimes the rabbit hole leading to an uncharted magical world doesn’t resemble a rabbit hole at all. Sometimes it looks more like a retail space on the aptly named Miracle Mile, comprised of four walls of unwritten possibility and an empty space echoing with bewitching melodies of fate and serendipity only one man could hear and, eventually, to the benefit of us all, amplify.
The man in question — local entrepreneur and CEO of the international wellness sensation 54D Omar Yunes — purchased an old school Italian restaurant as an investment for his retiring father to run. When his father chose to remain in his beloved Mexico City for his golden years, and a subsequent potential buyer for the restaurant got cold feet, Yunes found himself at a crossroads. He had run restaurants in the past, including sushi franchises in his late teens and early twenties, and the vibe was decidedly: been there, done that, got the apron to prove it.
If I could create anything in this space, Yunes asked himself, what would it be?
He let the question linger a few weeks until an epiphanous voice from somewhere deep in his soul replied: My library.
That was it! His current life was rich both personally and professionally — happily married, three wonderful kids, leading an innovative and high-profile business. But what Yunes missed most from the former life and home he left behind in Mexico City a decade ago when he relocated to the United States was his library; the place where he would strum his guitars, spin his records (heavy on torch singers and jazz; Jacqueline du Pré’s take on Sir Edward Elgar’s Cello Concerto in E minor, Op. 85), read the books he’d been collecting since age eight or nine (Hemingway, Murakami, the Latin American magical realists), play with his kids.
Yunes put on his developer hat and, tapping into his previous work in the high-end residential and hospitality spaces, began to build out the space in his downtime, hitting Home Depot for paint samples, rearranging furniture, solely following his muse for the first time in his long career. “That became my therapy for a couple years,” Yunes says with a soft chuckle. “It was a place for me to get out the stress of day-to-day business. Just put on some music, pop open a beer, and figure things out. You’d be surprised how many solutions come to you listening to an old jazz record while cleaning floors or installing insulation.” In a lovely bit of kismet, when his other businesses got hectic, and he felt a little stressed about all his (metaphorical) spinning plates, Yunes bought a copy of Dune Messiah for a dose of escapism. Back at the evolving space, he removed the book jacket and saw embossed on the hardcover the words: I WILL FACE MY FEAR. “Somehow the right books fall in your lap at the right time,” he says. “A lot of life is like that.”
At first, Yunes dubbed the space Tiny Bar. As the passion project became an increasingly personal expression, he changed the name to The Burrow — a nod to his childhood family nickname, Bunny. “This really is my refuge — where I feel safe and happy and protected,” he says. “My burrow.”
Photo by The Burrow
After a soft opening with family and friends around Thanksgiving last year, Yunes began booking acts. The Burrow Sessions No. 1 featured legendary crooner “Pancho” Cespedes. From there, the lineups — though perhaps a bit jazz heavy — have only become more eclectic, featuring blues, folk, fusion, and more, including soul singer Anna Paloma, Jose Armando Gola, and the Andy Garcia Trio. Four years ago, Yunes had seen Grammy-winning trumpeter Charlie Porter live Smalls Jazz Club in New York City and had chatted him up. When The Burrow opened, Yunes cold-called him, and Porter wound up flying in to perform. “It sends a tingle down my spine just telling the story,” Yunes says. “I don’t feel like a club owner. I feel like a fan living in a dream.”
The atmosphere is indeed one of reverence — musicians are not presented as background afterthoughts or hired guns to help sell drinks. (In fact, the ticket price for events includes all house beer, wine, sake, and cocktails.) The only rule guiding Yunes’ approach to booking is that performers must have passion and a POV, like his personal favorites like B.B. King and Nina Simone who wrought pure emotion from sound. “I love the torch singers who made you feel it because they lived it,” Yunes says. “When I hear Michael Bublé singing Nina Simone? It’s like, ‘Dude, I don’t believe you.’ No disrespect — he’s a great young singer, and I do believe him when he sings Christmas carols but it’s like…he’s way too happy for this, you know?”
Photo by The Burrow
“The Burrow is a gem,” Carlos Escanilla of Tremora and Sunset Dreams fame, who recently took The Burrow stage, says. “An owner who is just as passionate about live music as the performers…Omar makes it a point to allow an hour for guests to socialize and enjoy, and as he introduces the band, he respectfully asks guests to be attentive to the performance. His spirit, and this system, resulted in a magical night. Many of my guests use that word specifically: Magical.”
The Burrow model is less private club than the cultural salons of pre-war Paris and London. “[I]ntimate gatherings,” The Burrow website reads, “where artists, thinkers, and patrons came together to share music, ideas, and conversation — places where culture was experienced socially, not just observed.” Which means in addition to musical performances, there are themed vinyl nights — funk, soul, bolero with tango — every Saturday, as well as masterclasses and chef takeovers. (See, for example, The Art of Cocktail Mixing on Friday, June 5, and Vinyl Omakase with Chef Max Kamakura on Thursday, June 11.) Eventually, Yunes hopes to expand into broader talks on the arts and on hot topics such as AI.
There are two elements to this salon: First, the events, which are ticketed and open to everyone. And, second, an invitation-only membership that allows “members to visit the Salon not just during our Events but also use it as a place to work, meet with friends or just relax every day from 9 a.m. through closing time.” (Be prepared to serve yourself or get Uber Eats, though — The Burrow is not staffed during daytime hours.)
The guilelessness of Yunes’ approach is resonating at a moment when people are hungry for something grounded and real amid avatars and an increasingly ephemeral generative culture. The Burrow is not creating the meme-able illusion of an experience, but an actual experience. The sound system is made to accent conversation, not overwhelm the senses. There are no rules against cellphones, yet people rarely use them.
“It has exceeded all my expectations,” Yunes says. “My attitude was like, ‘I’ll build this and hopefully some people like it.’ I didn’t try to control the process too much. I’m 48 and have been an entrepreneur for a long time — I’ve learned that things don’t go as planned. So, I wanted to flow with it and see what happened and let it become what it is going to become. It’s amazing to me that it has touched so many already. I’m very proud when I see an artist I booked performing and a room full of people immersed in it, and really feeling something. That, to me, is true success.”
There is also an element of legacy at play as Yunes strives to imbue his own children with the same admiration for culture and the arts with which his parents gifted him. “I’m spending a lot of time on this,” he says. “I’m up at 5 a.m. to go to the gym, work with my other businesses, then do what I call my afternoon shift at The Burrow. So, it’s very important to me as a dad to have them see what we’re doing and learn how powerful and important it is to create beautiful things; to create opportunities for beauty.”
