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Hormigueros.- Food from the land and sea, the taste of barbecue and a touch of Novo Latino cuisine are combined at Sazonao in Hormigueros.

From ribs and steaks to the best of mofongos stuffed with seafood or meat, you can find it all on this restaurant’s menu, located on Highway 2, marginal 644, near Barrio Benavente.

Owner Benjamín Martínez-Ruiz explained that the gastronomic offer, which includes appetizing criollo dishes for lunch and a more sophisticated menu for dinner, was prepared by international chef Carlos Rosario.

Juicy meat cuts such as New York Steak, filet mignon, ribs or kan-kan pork chops are part of the appetizing meat menu. Grouper, salmon, mahi-mahi and shrimp, among other seafood, are also on the menu. For the more criollo palates there is also biftec with sauteed onions, chicken breast, stewed meat, salted codfish salad, among other dishes that populate the lunch menu that runs from 11:00 a.m. to 3:00 in the afternoon. Of course, traditional criollo side dishes such as mamposteao rice, tostones and white rice with beans are present in their gastronomic offer.

However, it is the mofongos that dominate the Puerto Rican palate. Theirs is accompanied by fried pork chunks or seafood, both for lunch and thee rest of their opening time, until 9:00 p.m., seven days a week. A wide selection of drinks and cocktails complements the menu of the establishment, where a family atmosphere prevails. There is also live music on weekends.

With a payroll that employs 22 people, Sazonao is the result of a long career in the gastronomic industry that Martínez-Ruiz began at the early age of 18. He started working in the kitchen of a well-known restaurant chain and fell in love with this world. The 39-year-old business owner said that from early on in his life, he had always been a businessman. “I remember taking pencils to school and selling them. And when I was nine years old, my mother worked at a supermarket and there was no one to take care of me, so I would go with her and work as a bagger,” he said.

Eventually, he started in the restaurant industry where, within a year of starting as a cook, he was already manager. “I had begun studying Physical Education in college, but because I stayed in the restaurant industry, I later changed my major to Business Administration. I’ve been doing this for half my life.”

After launching his entrepreneurial venture seven years ago, Martínez-Ruiz had to overcome unthinkable obstacles such as Hurricane Maria and then the arrival of Covid-19. “We had started in a storefront at the back, and eventually we made this structure that functioned as a chinchorro. But when the pandemic started, it was food to-go, because it was harder for people to get all the way over there. It was easier to park there; we brought over their take-out, and we started preparing lunches there. We moved the kitchen over there, reinvented ourselves and stayed, and we’ve grown from there,” he said.

A key factor in Sazonao’s success that, according to Martínez-Ruiz has led it to receive the patronage of customers in the western area, is the quality of the food and customer service. All this despite its location away from the coast. “Because we like what we do, we pass it on to them [the employees] and try to have them uphold it,” he noted.

In addition to the 22 direct jobs, Sazonao produces several indirect jobs. Its farm has allowed the establishment of three other businesses, including a hamburger food truck, a frappé business, and another for gelatos.

For additional information you can call 787-822-3520.