September 11, 2024 • 12 mins
Delectable Dishes & Decades of Deliciousness: Inside Padrino's Restaurants Craving an inside scoop on a South Florida staple? We sat down with the Laura Pardino of Padrino's Restaurants at their beautiful Plantation location! ️ Dive into the rich history of this family-owned gem, from its humble beginnings to its bright future. Discover the secrets behind their mouthwatering dishes and what keeps them a local favorite. Want to experience Padrino's for yourself? Head to https://padrinos.com/ and tell them SoFloDining sent you! #SoFloDining #PadrinosRestaurants #Plantation
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Transcript
Episode Transcript
Available transcripts are automatically generated. Complete accuracy is not guaranteed.
(00:00):
Hi everybody, it's Jeff Samp from Sofo Donuts.
(00:07):
We're here at Padrinos in San Cacien with Laura Padrino and Boris with a dig.
Hi everybody.
And we're going to talk a little bit about Padrinos and family.
Great, sounds good.
It's all the way.
First question of the afternoon is how long have you been in business?
How long have we been in business as a family business since 1976?
(00:29):
Obviously, I am not that old, but my grandparents started the business.
1976 gave it over to my dad and now my brothers and I are at the helm.
So there's three of us in the business and we've been on for the last decade, decade and a half.
And about how long have you been here at this location, this beautiful location?
Thank you so much.
So this location specifically that we're at, we've only been here a year.
(00:50):
But in the city of Plantation, we've been here for 31 years.
So we were actually opened in the shopping center nearby and we just moved over here with a brand new look.
Only a year ago.
It's really beautiful.
Thank you so much.
Beautiful.
And we did the Grand Open.
Yes, we did.
We were here for the Grand Open.
Yes, we were also here for Mother's Day last year.
That's right, that's right.
That was awesome.
(01:11):
What style of food do you serve?
We know, but we want everybody else to know.
Sure, yes.
So it's traditional Cuban cuisine.
All the recipes are my grandmother's.
So we say we're not chef-centered, but they're recipe-centered.
All the recipes, like I said, are my grandmother's.
We do not deviate from that.
Her recipes are what we live by.
Now I've come in and I've made a little, sometimes I remix things and I'll have a little fun.
(01:37):
And maybe we add a couple things, but her recipes, the traditional staples,
the lechonesado, viste de pollo, roba vieja, picadillo, do do do do, on and on and on.
Those are going to be all for my grandmother.
And I think one of the reviews we did, one of the padrinos, I said this is original, cute,
but it's not new bell, it's not pretty, and I made fancy, this is Cuban cuisine.
(02:00):
Right, so it's not fusion, so it should feel like it's your grandmother's cooking.
At the same time, made fancy, I like to say we refine the presentation,
so it's not going to be the falling off the sides of the plate.
We also use really fresh ingredients, so it's not going to feel heavy.
It's not going to be greasy.
So we do, we did try to refine the experience from what maybe typical Cuban cuisine is.
(02:23):
But it's still going to be traditional in all the recipes for sure.
What is your favorite dish?
Okay, imagine I've been eating this my entire life, so I'm not going to say how long that is,
but it's more than 30 years, and I have had everything and got sick of everything,
because that means when you've had everything, you kind of get tired of it.
So right now, actually, I'll tell you my favorite right now.
(02:46):
It's actually my creation.
So I'm not saying because it's my creation, it's because I love it right now.
It's called the cha-cha chicken sandwich.
So why is it called the cha-cha?
It's so good, it makes you want to dance.
So it's a chicken steak, so it's that grilled chicken breast that we do,
and caramelized onions, mozzarella cheese melted,
(03:09):
and the bread gets the cilantro aioli pressed between Cuban bread, and it's just so good.
You get sweet, savory, cheesy, gooey.
I love it, I love it.
I know, you got to try it.
It's so good.
We've only had it on for a few months now, but it's really popular.
Wow, and that was, you just led me into my next question.
(03:31):
What is your most popular dish?
Most popular, I mean the chicken steak is always going to be super popular.
That's that biste de pollo, the chicken breast.
Baca fritas come in hot, like people really love that.
Churrasco, the skirt steak, leche or asado, those are really traditional and typical dishes.
So what you would imagine the traditional, typical stuff, that's what's the most popular.
(03:53):
What do you usually order?
What do you usually order?
The chicken steak?
I usually get the albino, or the churrasco.
That's usually my favorite, the leche on the salad.
And the lechon?
It's the lechon.
I also like the bites, the little...
Maza de poico?
So the fried pork chunks, those are very good.
I think I like masas more than roast pork, for me.
(04:16):
And the tozpones, oh my goodness.
That goody sauce that you put on it?
The moho?
Oh yeah, moho, yeah.
Sorry, moho on the tozpones for sure.
You guys make moho here.
We make everything, yeah.
That's the difference, we've had it in other places.
And I just put it inside, because you get that, I want to say process of cooking, you're sitting here,
(04:39):
like she said, we just pour it all over.
Yeah, yep.
Just don't kiss after that, because it's very garlicky.
So I was wondering, like, you're going to delve into your background a little bit.
Sure.
How did you come by being in the hospitality industry?
In the family business?
Yeah.
(05:00):
So imagine it was in my blood since forever.
Love it.
So third generation, so it's what I always saw, and I always, you know, I was modeled in front of me all the time.
So I went to school actually for marketing.
I don't know, I wasn't feeling it.
Even though that's my title right now, is director of sales and marketing.
I switched to hospitality, I was like, oh, this feels like home.
(05:21):
So, you know, just had a lot more traction there.
It just felt right, felt like a right fit.
And actually right after college, I went to a con ride, it's a high-end hotel.
Did that for a few years, and said, you know what, if I'm going to be working this hard, which I was,
it was working really hard, I'm going to do this for Padrino, my own last name, and not Hilton, and not somebody else.
(05:43):
So after a few years, I came back, I actually had something to offer, because at that point,
I had some corporate experience that I was able to actually add value, and came on.
And what I did was, I started the catering, which we didn't have really before, a catering department,
which now after over 10 years, it's quite successful.
So it's something I'm very, very proud of.
And now we have somebody that takes care of that, and I can do other things, like design the restaurant,
(06:08):
and all the other stuff that I do.
Yeah, the place absolutely shows that touch.
I was just going to say, I love, I mean,
I love what you've done with the place.
Thanks, yes.
The old location, the boca, when I saw the big change there, this one here, incredible.
Thank you.
It's beautiful.
Thank you, thank you.
Yeah, but it's definitely one of the funner products of the job is, you know, that was my dad, imagine,
(06:29):
I didn't have design background, it was just, some people have an eye, if you will,
and he trusted me to do Fort Lauderdale, which was, it used to be a melting pot.
And then when we took over, we bought it, completely transformed it, he's like, oh wait,
you can actually do this.
So then I did it again, opened Daniel Point, and that was, you know, I designed the front.
And then Boca was the remodel.
And then here was a new location.
(06:51):
I like how the family's incorporated here.
Of course, there's always going to be family photos, always going to be that history,
because that's where we came from.
This one is different, this location, because actually if you look on the, in front of the bathroom,
in front of the bathroom is that whole wall, instead of just being the old black and white,
you have, you know, black and whites from Cuba to, when we first got here, it's like my grandfather
(07:12):
in like the first location.
And then there's like this, oh, such a good picture.
It's my grandmother holding me, I have like a little baby, and my dad, so you see all three generations
represented in one picture, in front of the restaurant in Howlandale.
So it's our old logo.
So it's, yeah, through the years, yep, photos obviously with my brothers and I, really special.
That's what I was telling you, I had a family of people wearing one in the grand opening.
(07:36):
Your father took me down the hall.
And explained all of them?
He gave me the history of the history of the grand tour.
I was like, wow, and so proud.
So proud.
Some people tell you the history, it's like, maybe it's so proud of the history of the grand tour.
And it should be.
Imagine, yeah, so what we're doing is honestly honoring their legacy.
So it's like, how did you get into hospitality?
I feel it as a higher calling truly.
(07:58):
Imagine my grandparents did all the hard work, my dad added to it, and then you're not going to squander that.
So we had to honor their legacy, but it's truly, it's our honor to honor their legacy.
It is not something that we do out of obligation or anything other than our true joy to be able to enhance on all the hard work that they put in.
I think you said it best when you said it's giving the blood.
(08:20):
Yeah.
I mean, it shows the quality.
I mean, we see your brother every time we've been in the museum, brother.
Yep.
And we've said, like you said about the gift.
There's so many restaurants that we've been to where we see that that gift was passed on.
And just taking advantage of it.
Here you can see it's not. You guys are growing.
Beautiful legacy.
You guys are awesome.
Thank you so much.
(08:41):
I'm really appreciate that.
Would you be open to giving us a little tour when we close?
Not now, obviously.
A tour of those?
Yeah, just a little one.
Absolutely.
Great.
Absolutely, happy to.
Yeah, happy to.
So without special events, do you have anything coming up?
We do.
Okay, so we do, we do.
So this location, it's going to be our third.
(09:02):
So we just started this, obviously, like I said, we just opened a year ago, but we're
doing what we call Cuban style Saturdays.
It's going to be the pig roast.
It's outside here.
It's a vibe, right?
So we have, you know, fun music playing and it's the full pig.
We have a sangria bar.
So you can do rosé white or red sangria.
We have a three leches with a topping bar.
(09:24):
So it's our three leches and you can put a bunch of different things on top of it,
really fun.
And so that full buffet and that is going to be on June 9th, which is a Saturday, June
8th.
June 8th is a Saturday.
And then June 8th as well, we'll have our Nocho Gawana in our port lauderdale location
in Boca.
So it's similar in that it's going to have the pig, but that one, they actually do a
(09:47):
paella as well.
So that's it in the evening.
And yeah, great success so far.
Everyone loves coming out to those events.
It is full hustle.
We need to know where you can be found.
Yep.
So you need the contact information and the hours of operations.
Easy enough.
So the restaurant is Padrinos and the website is padrinos.com and everything is on there.
(10:11):
So all the hours of operations, all the locations hold the same hours, but there's a locations
tab.
You can find all the addresses, all the phone numbers.
You can order online directly through there.
You can find more information about private dining on there, about catering, everything
to be found on padrinos.com.
Also for our social media on Instagram, it's at Padrinos Cuban.
So be sure to follow us on there because there you can just also, I love to use Instagram
(10:36):
as like basically a Google images where I'm just looking at all the food and so you can
see what we offer and great photos of each of our dishes.
That's a great idea.
So you can take you on the website, the catering section is really good.
We need to get a lot of places I go to, you get lost on there.
Really need to have a like.
Right, yes.
We have our catering menu on there, but you also have a form you can complete, send over
(10:57):
to our catering coordinator or just contact him directly and he can set you up with whatever
you need, help you guide you through the process.
A lot of people don't know how many, you know, how much to order quantity wise.
So we can assist you in that.
We take catering very seriously.
So we want to make sure that we help everybody through that process.
Do you have anything else to add before we call us?
(11:18):
I don't think so.
Come visit us, the dream house, all five locations.
Obviously this new one here in plantation, but all the other ones are excellent as well.
Like I said, all of them are recipe based, not chef based.
You're going to get the same food, same experience everywhere and hopefully experience the culture
that we give as a family through all of the team members.
Outside of that, just thank you.
(11:40):
Thanks for coming out today.
Thank you for this time.
Thank you.
I totally appreciate you.
What you're doing here is absolutely beautiful.
Thank you.
Even though you've been here for 30 some odd years.
Thank you for a minute, but yes, we're happy to still stick around.
Yes.
Awesome.
Thank you.
Do you have anything else to add, chef?
That's good.
I mean, come cook at Reno's.
Our favorite food.
(12:01):
Thank you.
Thank you.
Appreciate that.
Honestly, thank you one more time.
So flow dining.
Don't forget to like, share, and subscribe.
And we'll see you there.
Bye.
Hi everybody, it's Jeff Samp from Sofo Donuts.
(00:07):
We're here at Padrinos in San Cacien with Laura Padrino and Boris with a dig.
Hi everybody.
And we're going to talk a little bit about Padrinos and family.
Great, sounds good.
It's all the way.
First question of the afternoon is how long have you been in business?
How long have we been in business as a family business since 1976?
(00:29):
Obviously, I am not that old, but my grandparents started the business.
1976 gave it over to my dad and now my brothers and I are at the helm.
So there's three of us in the business and we've been on for the last decade, decade and a half.
And about how long have you been here at this location, this beautiful location?
Thank you so much.
So this location specifically that we're at, we've only been here a year.
(00:50):
But in the city of Plantation, we've been here for 31 years.
So we were actually opened in the shopping center nearby and we just moved over here with a brand new look.
Only a year ago.
It's really beautiful.
Thank you so much.
Beautiful.
And we did the Grand Open.
Yes, we did.
We were here for the Grand Open.
Yes, we were also here for Mother's Day last year.
That's right, that's right.
That was awesome.
(01:11):
What style of food do you serve?
We know, but we want everybody else to know.
Sure, yes.
So it's traditional Cuban cuisine.
All the recipes are my grandmother's.
So we say we're not chef-centered, but they're recipe-centered.
All the recipes, like I said, are my grandmother's.
We do not deviate from that.
Her recipes are what we live by.
Now I've come in and I've made a little, sometimes I remix things and I'll have a little fun.
(01:37):
And maybe we add a couple things, but her recipes, the traditional staples,
the lechonesado, viste de pollo, roba vieja, picadillo, do do do do, on and on and on.
Those are going to be all for my grandmother.
And I think one of the reviews we did, one of the padrinos, I said this is original, cute,
but it's not new bell, it's not pretty, and I made fancy, this is Cuban cuisine.
(02:00):
Right, so it's not fusion, so it should feel like it's your grandmother's cooking.
At the same time, made fancy, I like to say we refine the presentation,
so it's not going to be the falling off the sides of the plate.
We also use really fresh ingredients, so it's not going to feel heavy.
It's not going to be greasy.
So we do, we did try to refine the experience from what maybe typical Cuban cuisine is.
(02:23):
But it's still going to be traditional in all the recipes for sure.
What is your favorite dish?
Okay, imagine I've been eating this my entire life, so I'm not going to say how long that is,
but it's more than 30 years, and I have had everything and got sick of everything,
because that means when you've had everything, you kind of get tired of it.
So right now, actually, I'll tell you my favorite right now.
(02:46):
It's actually my creation.
So I'm not saying because it's my creation, it's because I love it right now.
It's called the cha-cha chicken sandwich.
So why is it called the cha-cha?
It's so good, it makes you want to dance.
So it's a chicken steak, so it's that grilled chicken breast that we do,
and caramelized onions, mozzarella cheese melted,
(03:09):
and the bread gets the cilantro aioli pressed between Cuban bread, and it's just so good.
You get sweet, savory, cheesy, gooey.
I love it, I love it.
I know, you got to try it.
It's so good.
We've only had it on for a few months now, but it's really popular.
Wow, and that was, you just led me into my next question.
(03:31):
What is your most popular dish?
Most popular, I mean the chicken steak is always going to be super popular.
That's that biste de pollo, the chicken breast.
Baca fritas come in hot, like people really love that.
Churrasco, the skirt steak, leche or asado, those are really traditional and typical dishes.
So what you would imagine the traditional, typical stuff, that's what's the most popular.
(03:53):
What do you usually order?
What do you usually order?
The chicken steak?
I usually get the albino, or the churrasco.
That's usually my favorite, the leche on the salad.
And the lechon?
It's the lechon.
I also like the bites, the little...
Maza de poico?
So the fried pork chunks, those are very good.
I think I like masas more than roast pork, for me.
(04:16):
And the tozpones, oh my goodness.
That goody sauce that you put on it?
The moho?
Oh yeah, moho, yeah.
Sorry, moho on the tozpones for sure.
You guys make moho here.
We make everything, yeah.
That's the difference, we've had it in other places.
And I just put it inside, because you get that, I want to say process of cooking, you're sitting here,
(04:39):
like she said, we just pour it all over.
Yeah, yep.
Just don't kiss after that, because it's very garlicky.
So I was wondering, like, you're going to delve into your background a little bit.
Sure.
How did you come by being in the hospitality industry?
In the family business?
Yeah.
(05:00):
So imagine it was in my blood since forever.
Love it.
So third generation, so it's what I always saw, and I always, you know, I was modeled in front of me all the time.
So I went to school actually for marketing.
I don't know, I wasn't feeling it.
Even though that's my title right now, is director of sales and marketing.
I switched to hospitality, I was like, oh, this feels like home.
(05:21):
So, you know, just had a lot more traction there.
It just felt right, felt like a right fit.
And actually right after college, I went to a con ride, it's a high-end hotel.
Did that for a few years, and said, you know what, if I'm going to be working this hard, which I was,
it was working really hard, I'm going to do this for Padrino, my own last name, and not Hilton, and not somebody else.
(05:43):
So after a few years, I came back, I actually had something to offer, because at that point,
I had some corporate experience that I was able to actually add value, and came on.
And what I did was, I started the catering, which we didn't have really before, a catering department,
which now after over 10 years, it's quite successful.
So it's something I'm very, very proud of.
And now we have somebody that takes care of that, and I can do other things, like design the restaurant,
(06:08):
and all the other stuff that I do.
Yeah, the place absolutely shows that touch.
I was just going to say, I love, I mean,
I love what you've done with the place.
Thanks, yes.
The old location, the boca, when I saw the big change there, this one here, incredible.
Thank you.
It's beautiful.
Thank you, thank you.
Yeah, but it's definitely one of the funner products of the job is, you know, that was my dad, imagine,
(06:29):
I didn't have design background, it was just, some people have an eye, if you will,
and he trusted me to do Fort Lauderdale, which was, it used to be a melting pot.
And then when we took over, we bought it, completely transformed it, he's like, oh wait,
you can actually do this.
So then I did it again, opened Daniel Point, and that was, you know, I designed the front.
And then Boca was the remodel.
And then here was a new location.
(06:51):
I like how the family's incorporated here.
Of course, there's always going to be family photos, always going to be that history,
because that's where we came from.
This one is different, this location, because actually if you look on the, in front of the bathroom,
in front of the bathroom is that whole wall, instead of just being the old black and white,
you have, you know, black and whites from Cuba to, when we first got here, it's like my grandfather
(07:12):
in like the first location.
And then there's like this, oh, such a good picture.
It's my grandmother holding me, I have like a little baby, and my dad, so you see all three generations
represented in one picture, in front of the restaurant in Howlandale.
So it's our old logo.
So it's, yeah, through the years, yep, photos obviously with my brothers and I, really special.
That's what I was telling you, I had a family of people wearing one in the grand opening.
(07:36):
Your father took me down the hall.
And explained all of them?
He gave me the history of the history of the grand tour.
I was like, wow, and so proud.
So proud.
Some people tell you the history, it's like, maybe it's so proud of the history of the grand tour.
And it should be.
Imagine, yeah, so what we're doing is honestly honoring their legacy.
So it's like, how did you get into hospitality?
I feel it as a higher calling truly.
(07:58):
Imagine my grandparents did all the hard work, my dad added to it, and then you're not going to squander that.
So we had to honor their legacy, but it's truly, it's our honor to honor their legacy.
It is not something that we do out of obligation or anything other than our true joy to be able to enhance on all the hard work that they put in.
I think you said it best when you said it's giving the blood.
(08:20):
Yeah.
I mean, it shows the quality.
I mean, we see your brother every time we've been in the museum, brother.
Yep.
And we've said, like you said about the gift.
There's so many restaurants that we've been to where we see that that gift was passed on.
And just taking advantage of it.
Here you can see it's not. You guys are growing.
Beautiful legacy.
You guys are awesome.
Thank you so much.
(08:41):
I'm really appreciate that.
Would you be open to giving us a little tour when we close?
Not now, obviously.
A tour of those?
Yeah, just a little one.
Absolutely.
Great.
Absolutely, happy to.
Yeah, happy to.
So without special events, do you have anything coming up?
We do.
Okay, so we do, we do.
So this location, it's going to be our third.
(09:02):
So we just started this, obviously, like I said, we just opened a year ago, but we're
doing what we call Cuban style Saturdays.
It's going to be the pig roast.
It's outside here.
It's a vibe, right?
So we have, you know, fun music playing and it's the full pig.
We have a sangria bar.
So you can do rosé white or red sangria.
We have a three leches with a topping bar.
(09:24):
So it's our three leches and you can put a bunch of different things on top of it,
really fun.
And so that full buffet and that is going to be on June 9th, which is a Saturday, June
8th.
June 8th is a Saturday.
And then June 8th as well, we'll have our Nocho Gawana in our port lauderdale location
in Boca.
So it's similar in that it's going to have the pig, but that one, they actually do a
(09:47):
paella as well.
So that's it in the evening.
And yeah, great success so far.
Everyone loves coming out to those events.
It is full hustle.
We need to know where you can be found.
Yep.
So you need the contact information and the hours of operations.
Easy enough.
So the restaurant is Padrinos and the website is padrinos.com and everything is on there.
(10:11):
So all the hours of operations, all the locations hold the same hours, but there's a locations
tab.
You can find all the addresses, all the phone numbers.
You can order online directly through there.
You can find more information about private dining on there, about catering, everything
to be found on padrinos.com.
Also for our social media on Instagram, it's at Padrinos Cuban.
So be sure to follow us on there because there you can just also, I love to use Instagram
(10:36):
as like basically a Google images where I'm just looking at all the food and so you can
see what we offer and great photos of each of our dishes.
That's a great idea.
So you can take you on the website, the catering section is really good.
We need to get a lot of places I go to, you get lost on there.
Really need to have a like.
Right, yes.
We have our catering menu on there, but you also have a form you can complete, send over
(10:57):
to our catering coordinator or just contact him directly and he can set you up with whatever
you need, help you guide you through the process.
A lot of people don't know how many, you know, how much to order quantity wise.
So we can assist you in that.
We take catering very seriously.
So we want to make sure that we help everybody through that process.
Do you have anything else to add before we call us?
(11:18):
I don't think so.
Come visit us, the dream house, all five locations.
Obviously this new one here in plantation, but all the other ones are excellent as well.
Like I said, all of them are recipe based, not chef based.
You're going to get the same food, same experience everywhere and hopefully experience the culture
that we give as a family through all of the team members.
Outside of that, just thank you.
(11:40):
Thanks for coming out today.
Thank you for this time.
Thank you.
I totally appreciate you.
What you're doing here is absolutely beautiful.
Thank you.
Even though you've been here for 30 some odd years.
Thank you for a minute, but yes, we're happy to still stick around.
Yes.
Awesome.
Thank you.
Do you have anything else to add, chef?
That's good.
I mean, come cook at Reno's.
Our favorite food.
(12:01):
Thank you.
Thank you.
Appreciate that.
Honestly, thank you one more time.
So flow dining.
Don't forget to like, share, and subscribe.
And we'll see you there.
Bye.
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Las Culturistas with Matt Rogers and Bowen Yang
Ding dong! Join your culture consultants, Matt Rogers and Bowen Yang, on an unforgettable journey into the beating heart of CULTURE. Alongside sizzling special guests, they GET INTO the hottest pop-culture moments of the day and the formative cultural experiences that turned them into Culturistas. Produced by the Big Money Players Network and iHeartRadio.
Crime Junkie
Does hearing about a true crime case always leave you scouring the internet for the truth behind the story? Dive into your next mystery with Crime Junkie. Every Monday, join your host Ashley Flowers as she unravels all the details of infamous and underreported true crime cases with her best friend Brit Prawat. From cold cases to missing persons and heroes in our community who seek justice, Crime Junkie is your destination for theories and stories you won’t hear anywhere else. Whether you're a seasoned true crime enthusiast or new to the genre, you'll find yourself on the edge of your seat awaiting a new episode every Monday. If you can never get enough true crime... Congratulations, you’ve found your people. Follow to join a community of Crime Junkies! Crime Junkie is presented by audiochuck Media Company.