Palomino reopens its kitchen, patio
Palomino’s kitchen reopened to the public Thursday, after being mostly closed for nearly a year.
The Bay View restaurant at 2491 S. Superior St. closed in July 2022 citing staffing shortages. Since then, it has only been open periodically to sell pies and drinks, as well as a few pop-up pie baking classes and food nights including a burger night on March 9 and chicken night on April 11, both of which required reservations.
The restaurant announced its reopening on social media saying they will start with a small menu of fan favorites including burgers and hot fried chicken sandwiches, both with a vegan option, plus tots and pies.
Palomino is owned by PIE Inc., which also operates Honeypie and Smallpie in Bay View and Comet Cafe on the east side.
Honeypie Bakeshop, which is its own business, operates out of Palomino. Bakeshop workers were at the bar every day making pies and baked goods for other restaurants, which was a big reason PIE kept the unopened restaurant space, owner Valeri Lucks said in an email.
To reopen Palomino, PIE put an enormous effort into staffing and had their chief operating officer working on recruiting full time since January, Lucks said. They needed eight people on staff to get Palomino back to a consistent schedule.
“We had to be very proactive about it and seek out good folks, rather than wait for people to come to us,” she said. “We are very excited to have the food back starting tonight.”
The kitchen will be open 5 to 9 p.m. Thursday through Monday, and the bar will be open until 11 p.m. those days. The dog-friendly patio is also open.