Paladares pepper the Cuban landscape today, but until the 1990s, these small, family-owned restaurants operated as underground hot spots that only people in the know could find. So, it makes sense for hospitality maven Jolene Mannina to name her new chef incubator Paladare. Mannina is known for her ability to create FOMO — from her SecretBurger.com pop-ups to her revolving restaurant concepts at the former Vegas Test Kitchen on East Fremont.
The new 2,200 square foot space in the Huntridge community in downtown Las Vegas will rent out four independent spaces, each with its own commercial kitchen and 24-hour private access. “Whatever I can do to promote chefs, help chefs move forward, give them tools — I guess it's the main thing in my wheelhouse,” Mannina says. “I love everything from front-of-house to back-of-house. I understand how chefs work. I understand their needs.”
Mannina prided herself on helping chefs through her first chef incubator, Vegas Test Kitchen, where they gained the ability to test ideas and hone offerings before committing to their own restaurants. VTK, as regulars called it, hosted around 70 chefs in its two and a half years before closing in June. Mannina says she had a five-year agreement funded by the Downtown Project, but it ended earlier than she wanted.
“The test kitchen definitely was not failing, We were surrounded by properties owned by Downtown Project, and they had no vision for those properties,” she says. “If I wanted to take over the entire space by myself outside of the agreement we had, I wanted to see the growth plan for the neighborhood, and they couldn't do that. It’s unfortunate, but I just didn't feel good in the situation.”
Downtown Project did not respond to Desert Companion's request for comment by press time.
Mannina’s new partner, J Dapper, is eager to pick up where he thinks Vegas Test Kitchen left off. “I always wanted to do something with Jolene,” says Dapper, who helped Yukon Pizza, a two-year resident of Vegas Test Kitchen, open its first restaurant recently in the Huntridge Shopping Center. “So many people in the culinary world need a place like this.”
The main difference between VTK and Paladare is that the new place won’t have a communal dining space for food lovers yet. Instead, it will start as a private commissary and/or ghost kitchen. The four concepts will have the option to operate a take-out service as well, if they like.
Dr. Stowe Shoemaker, Dean of UNLV Hospitality, says although there will always be a need for traditional restaurants, this kind of shared space will be a big part of the city’s food future. “We have a lot of talented chefs in this town. This is great because it allows the chef to be an entrepreneur without going broke doing it,” Shoemaker says. “The timing is perfect … post pandemic and with Uber Eats and such … Chefs can be in the restaurant biz without being in the restaurant biz.”
Both Mannina and Dapper are already talking about how Paladare could evolve. It might lead to multiple chef incubators across the valley. It may include a location like Vegas Test Kitchen with a restaurant, but in a different location. Mannina says she’s excited to fill the new space with four distinct concepts creating a unique chef community, where they can interact and still have their own private area. Whatever happens, she believes what’s ahead will include two of her favorite things in life: “Food and booze. It makes us all happy, right? For me, it's super fun. It's rewarding. It's challenging. It's chaotic. And I love to coordinate things,” Mannina says. “I can't imagine ever not being in a field that does not involve food and chefs.”
Mannina hopes to open Paladare in late fall of this year in the Mahoney’s building at 608 S. Maryland Parkway.
