Adobo Latin Kitchen, known for its authentic Puerto Rican dishes, is expanding into a larger space this December. However, the fast-casual concept isn’t moving far and will remain anchored in the same Easton complex.
“We’re literally moving two doors down. We’re in a shopping strip so it’s really the same address but different unit number,” owner Jose Pinargote told What Now Philadelphia. “There’s no way you can miss us, especially since I’m putting a sign up that is twice as big as the one we have now.”
Adobo opened in 2017 in its current 1,200-square-foot space, which served the restaurant well for years, but with growth, they now need more room.
“We’ve been very blessed. We’ve had tons of support from the community. Everything’s been great, but we ran into a problem where now we’re too busy for our location. There’s no room to expand in that space,” Pinargote said.
With the upgrade and new location, Adobo plans to refresh and modernize its concept.
“We were able to build a completely brand new space–new kitchen, new dining room. We’re actually not taking any of the stuff from the current restaurant over,” he said. “We kind of just reimagined it. It’s a very similar layout but we wanted to modernize it. Things that were in eight years ago, aren’t necessarily in now.”
The new Adobo will highlight wood and earth tones inside, using porcelain tiles and black accents to make the restaurant pop.
The menu’s homemade cuisine is here to stay, featuring favorites like mofongo, a fried mashed plantain with a choice of meat or seafood, along with the roast pork plate and cubed steak plate, each served with yellow or white rice. The restaurant’s usual specials, including fried pork chops and codfish, will become permanent.
“What sets us apart is we have our full menu every single day. We also do daily specials, but all those items have become pretty popular. I couldn’t put them on the menu full time because I didn’t have enough space in our steam table to provide them all the time. I’m going to make them an actual permanent fixture on the menu,” Pinargote said.
They also plan to expand their popular empanada selection to 12 or 13 varieties.
“We’re experimenting with different flavors,” he said. “I think we’re going to do a Cuban empanada. That’ll have pork, pickles and mustard. I think we’re going to do a Cordon bleu and just have fun with it.”
The eatery is launching delivery through its website and will use warming cabinets in a section of the restaurant to keep orders hot.
“Being able to have a whole area of the restaurant that’s set up specifically for that was important to me,” Pinargote said.
Pinargote looks forward to giving his staff a more comfortable and functional workplace.
“The amount of customers that we serve on a daily basis is insane. The fact that they [staff] do it in such tight quarters is amazing. I appreciate my staff, they’re the ones that are putting out the food that’s getting recognition,” he said. “I want to make sure we have enough space, enough fryers, enough storage in the refrigerator–they shouldn’t have to have all these obstacles to work around.”
The current location will close on Monday, December 15, and the new space will officially open on Thursday, December 18. For updates, visit the Adobo Latin Kitchen website and follow them on Instagram and Facebook.
