Mojito fuses Latin culture with American steakhouse

Nation's Restaurant News, Sept 22, 2003 by Carolyn Walkup

ST. Louis PARK, MINN. -- Chris Paddock, founder of 4-month-old Mojito, just outside Minneapolis, carefully has geared his new Latino-inspired restaurant to the local market he knows so well.

Not one to open a restaurant on a whim, Paddock and partner and executive chef Pat Weber spent 18 months on an investigative travel-and-tasting odyssey through South and North America before finalizing the Mojito concept.

"I wanted to do a concept that had potential to grow beyond the Twin Cities, and I didn't want to just do meat and potatoes," said Paddock, who also owns the smaller Bobino Cafe & Wine Bar in northeast Minneapolis.

Inspired by visiting several churrascaria concepts on the two continents, Paddock learned he didn't want to duplicate that style of tableside serving with big skewers of meat. "It always seemed like my dining conversation was being interrupted," he said.

He also wanted to create a concept varied enough to tempt neighborhood customers to come in more than once a week, especially since the Twin Cities suburbs do not lure hoards of tourists or business travelers.

"We wanted to take the best of the North American steakhouse and introduce it to Latino culture," he explained. The resulting menu, which Paddock calls "crossroads cuisine," goes far beyond the Brazilian churrascaria to encompass foods from Minnesota to Chile, with North American service standards.

In developing the concept, he surmised that his potential customers want a certain comfort level yet are sophisticated enough to try slightly unfamiliar things. His intuition was correct: Waits for tables often run as long as two hours, and sales projections are in the $4.5 million range for the 214-seat restaurant and lounge.

Skewered, slow-roasted meats are a focal point in the display kitchen, but they are served family-style to tables of four people or more, not churrascaria-style on swords. For a $29 fixed price, each diner chooses three meats, a salad and three side dishes.

Among the appetizers are empanadas filled with beef picadillo and Argentine mozzarella with smoked paprika-tomato jam; carnitas of slow-fried pork with avocado, pickled onions, warm tortillas and ancho-chipotle sauce and alambres; and a trio of skewers of bacon-wrapped filet, pineapple-chipotle shrimp and Serrano ham-wrapped chicken with habanero chutney.

Other staples are Argentinian-influenced pizzas; Bahian-style sea scallops with clams, crab, coconut and malagueta peppers; and several cuts of steak, rubbed with cumin and smoked paprika and served with marinated roasted bell peppers and ancho-chipotle jus.

The dinner check average is $34, lunch is $14 and a late-night daypart is about $10. Food is served until 1 a.m. on weekends and midnight during the week. Sunday brunch also is served, and two long happy hours, featured weekdays from 4 p.m. to 7 p.m. and again from 10 p.m. to 1 a.m., open two more time slots for the bar and snack crowd.

Wines from north and south of the Equator, along with Latin American sipping rums, tequilas and cocktails, including mojitos, sangria, pisco sours and Cuban sidecars, are signature drinks. A list of after-dinner coffee drinks, sherries, cognacs and ports is presented with dessert menus.

"There is room to improve lunch, happy hour and late night," said Paddock, adding that most Minnesotans don't take long lunch hours and tend to go to bed early. For those who are seeking some after-dinner nightlife, however, Mojito is starting to feature live Latin music on weekends after 9 p.m.

"We're a neighborhood restaurant first," Paddock noted, pointing out Mojito's location in a new upscale apartment development. He describes the development as "smart growth within older suburbs where residents are looking beyond chains for fresh concepts close to home."

The design features a vibrant color palette, including one room painted bright red.

Paddock and Weber's partner, James Behnke, is chief financial officer. They and their investors hope to open a second Mojito in a more distant, fast-growing suburb, and a third downtown.

Paddock said the midpriced Mojito was geared to be recession-proof and to flourish once the economy improves.