Grandma's Spanish Kitchen Opens in Burlington 

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• Courtesy Of Grandma's Spanish Kitchen
• Cuban-style pork chops with sweet plantains, rice and beans,fresh cod ceviche, Josue Chanduvi

Chef-owner Josue Chanduvi opened a second outpost of his Plattsburgh, N.Y., restaurant, Grandma's Spanish Kitchen, in Orlando's Bar & Lounge at 1 Lawson Lane in early June. It replaced Smokey's Pit Stop, an offshoot of South Burlington barbecue restaurant Smokey's Low N' Slow.

Chanduvi, 28, grew up in Plattsburgh, where his culinary preferences were strongly influenced by his Peruvian mother and Cuban father, he said. He spent childhood summers visiting family in Cuba or Peru and lived in the latter country for seven months.

He opened his original New York restaurant in 2017 with no formal culinary training. Although Chanduvi had already started several small businesses, which he still owns, "I'd never worked in a restaurant a day in my life," he said with a laugh.

The restaurants are named in honor of his Peruvian grandmother, Lucia, as is his Grandma's Candy Shop in Plattsburgh.

Chanduvi said his goal is to share the foods of his dual heritage and to broaden understanding of Latin American culinary diversity. "It's not all Mexican and spicy," he said.

"The food represents me, and it represents my experience," the young chef said. Peruvian food in particular, he said, varies greatly depending on whether you eat in the Amazon or the coastal or the central mountain regions. "It's an up-and-coming cuisine in the world," Chanduvi said.

The menu at Grandma's Spanish Kitchen ranges from home-style Cuban marinated pork chops with sweet plantains, rice and beans to elegantly plated ceviche made with marinated fresh cod with a hint of hot Peruvian chile pepper and herbs. Chanduvi also offers specials; recently, for instance, roasted baby squash with butternut-squash-and-chorizo cream was inspired by produce from Half Pint Farm at Burlington's Intervale Center.

"It's always been my dream to have a restaurant in Burlington," Chanduvi said. "I feel people here understand what we're doing and appreciate what we're doing."

The restaurant is currently open Tuesday through Sunday, 4 p.m. to closing, for outdoor dining and takeout. The venue just added 50 seats in the courtyard in front of the building, in addition to the 20 seats on the back patio.