Los Bocados’ first restaurant debuts
Los Bocados’ first restaurant debuts
Chef Robby Bushman has measured it himself, and it’s exactly 152 footsteps south — more or less a taco’s throw — from Los Bocados’ former location to its new home in the same plaza.
There’s a huge difference in those 152 steps: No gas pumps.
Once a fast-casual taqueria inside the bright corner of a Chevron, Los Bocados has graduated to its first brick-andmortar restaurant in the Shoppes
of Parkland. The move to 7031 State Road 7 ends four-plus years of Bushman and chef-partner Anthony Hoff slinging tacos, burritos and quesadillas out of their no-frills eatery, which found national acclaim last November when Food Network star Guy Fieri spotlighted it on “Diners, Drive-Ins and Dives.”
Their 1,600-square-foot storefront is now sandwiched between a Starbucks and a Puppy Plus dog groomer.
“This sounds so lame but the best part is finally having a back door for deliveries,” Bushman says. “It’s not special. But for years Anthony and I had to carry all our inventory through the
Chevron, past the chips aisle, to our kitchen in the back, so we’re big fans of having private entrances.”
The biggest centerpiece of Los Bocados: A 1,000-squarefoot open kitchen that takes up three-quarters of the restaurant. A 20-foot-long kitchen hood stretches the length of the prep station, where a symphony of prep cooks are making avocado crèma for Los Bocados’ signature dish — barbecue brisket tostadas ($7.50 for two) — and blistering green peppers for fire-roasted salsa. Another cook flips handmade tortillas on the “quesadilla
station,” a pair of side-byside flattop grills.
This commissary-style kitchen, which Hoff admits is “big enough for a 10,000-square-foot dining room,” is intentionally massive, built to handle Los Bocados’ growing catering business. The kitchen will also help supply some premade dishes and ingredients to a second location of Los Bocados, set to open this July inside an office park on North Federal Highway in Boca Raton.
“We wanted an open kitchen because we’ve always been transparent like that,” Hoff says. “It’s always been, ‘Look, we’re here in a gas station, we have no secrets.’ And it’s the same way here. We like to work open and be efficient.”
The menu also hasn’t changed. Along with tacos ($10.50-$12.50), Los Bocados features build-your-own burritos ($10.50-$13) and quesadillas ($10-$12.50) stuffed with guajillo chicken, spicy citrus pork or carne asada. Cans of Modelo beer flavors dishes like Mahi Mahi Tacos ($14, topped with pickled jalapeno relish) and the Spicy Borracho Burrito ($8, with pickled red onions and chipotle salsa).
As with Chevron, where Bushman and Hoff squeezed in a handful of seats next to the air fresheners and soda fountain, there’s little seating at
the new Los Bocados. Its dining room contains six footstools and a simple countertop facing the wall, and 15 patio seats are outside. “We’ve always been an ‘eat-and-get-out’ kind of place,” Bushman says.
For Bushman, Los Bocados runs deep in his blood — and in his ink. The
restaurant’s name — which translates to snacks or bites — is tattooed on his right forearm. A cluster of important dates is tattooed near his left shin, including the birthdays of his two children, the day that Los Bocados was born in the Chevron in 2016, and the day — April 23, 2001 — that he survived a near-fatal
motorcycle accident.
“That was the day I got a second chance at life,” says Bushman, who with Hoff came from fine-dining backgrounds (City Fish Market in Boca). “I broke my back and my hip and my vitals were falling and they had to zap me back to life in the back of an ambulance.”
Twenty years later, Bushman is grateful to have Los Bocados. The restaurant has hummed with heavy traffic during the pandemic, partly thanks to Food Network star Guy Fieri’s seal of approval during his 2020 visit.
“We got a solid bump in visitors that hasn’t really gone away,” he says. “People loved what we tried to do in a gas station. Now we’re just able to do more of it.”
Los Bocados, at 7031 N. State Road 7, in Parkland, is open 11 a.m.- 9 p.m. Monday-Saturday and noon-6 p.m. Sunday. Call 965-637-4984 or go to LosBocados.com.