Marcelino Montalvo is used to individuals asking him to depart.
It’s not due to his persona. By all accounts, Montalvo — most individuals simply name him “Junito” — is a really personable man. It’s simply that together with him comes a lot of smoke. And as soon as the smoke occurs, the group comes. And with the crowds come the automobiles. And lengthy, winding traces. And that’s when issues get dicey.
That is the rationale why Montalvo went from roasting pigs over charcoal in his yard to a number of places round Orlando to having his personal restaurant in a single 12 months’s time.
At Lechonera El Sazón de mi Viejo, the smoke isn’t bothering anybody. And there’s loads of room to park. Additionally, for the traces, that are formidable on weekends, to snake out the door (and on some days wind amid distributors and meals vehicles and musicians) whereas they await a style of what many of us name house.
“I don’t have to return to Guavate anymore!” one in all them tells me as I wait my flip.
Montalvo estimates about 90 % of his prospects are Puerto Rican, a few of whom drive from Tampa, Jacksonville, Miami, even Georgia, to get what some profess is the one true style of the island they’ve been capable of finding on the mainland.
“The charcoal is the factor,” one other Puerto Rican chef right here on the town tells me.
Montalvo agrees.
“I believe the rationale we’re so fashionable is strictly as a result of the best way I do it’s the approach they do it in Puerto Rico,” Montalvo says.
His brother-in-law, Carlos Rodriguez, serves as interpreter.
“The seasoning I exploit is exclusive. I get it from my father. It’s particular. And we solely use charcoal. No propane. It’s charcoal, charcoal, charcoal.”
Montalvo (and right here, the “Junito,” or “Junior,” makes specific sense) provides props to his dad proper within the identify of the enterprise, which interprets to “My Outdated Man’s Seasonings.”
It was again house, in San Sebastian, the place he discovered to prepare dinner lechón alongside his father.
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Typically, they’d roast a pig for a celebration in somebody’s yard, however largely, they’d promote it roadside. Prospects would pull over, purchase some, and produce it house for dinner. Final 12 months, the 47-year-old determined to do the identical right here in Orlando, organising in prospects’ backyards for his or her occasions. Or on his personal, the place people would cease in, similar to they’d on the roads in Puerto Rico.
But it surely didn’t take lengthy for Montalvo’s neighbors to tire of the smoke, the automobiles and the fixed stream of individuals. So, he bought himself a 14-foot meals truck. A buddy with a enterprise on Goldenrod Street gave him area to park.
“The primary weekend was a bit of little bit of enterprise,” he says. “However on the second, so many individuals got here, he mentioned, ‘Pay attention, I really feel dangerous, however you may’t come again right here. You want one thing greater, man.’”
He moved to a different location off Bumby Avenue, however the cycle repeated.
“They known as the police as a result of so many individuals got here. They didn’t have sufficient parking. The nook went loopy.”
Montalvo invested six figures in a 36-foot truck and saved rising the enterprise, however his recognition remained his greatest roadblock. It was the Metropolis of Orlando, he says, that compelled him to search out brick-and-mortar area. He wanted a correct kitchen and a rest room for all the purchasers. And area for what was a rising assortment of customized grills, smoky sarcophagi during which he and his crew might meet demand.
A peek round again reveals all of them. Beneath a formidable tent, Montalvo’s crew works six grills in numerous sizes, all constructed to swimsuit. Collectively, they will accommodate 16 pigs without delay. Within the greatest amongst them, every of the three bars can accommodate 20 chickens.
“On a median week,” he tells me, “I do 500 chickens and 80 pigs.”
Together with the meats, there are sides. Many. Arroz con gandules, in fact, but additionally one other rice dish that includes hunks of Montalvo’s housemade longanisa. He does morcilla, too. 5 hundred kilos of it every week.
Beef empanadas await within the case for many who come by way of the cafeteria-style line, pointing on the issues they need. Others, just like the pulpo, are actually stuffed and fried to order. Cooked in a method that feels Italian, steeped in tomato, onion and inexperienced pepper, it’s arduous to recall consuming octopus so tender. The thought comes once more once I style the chilly octopus salad. My daughter will say the identical once I convey house the leftovers and she or he lays them to waste.
The meals right here is nice
“Folks love the yuca,” he tells me. And it’s a comforting aspect. Smooth-cooked and starchy with garlicky mojo, onion and pepper. Grill-roasted candy potato, or batata, too, is a favourite. This can be a totally different selection than Individuals are used to, however they’ll love its creamy texture simply the identical.
Sancocho is creamy, as properly, although the soup’s silkiness and weight come not from dairy however relatively the collagen of the pig’s ft that create its flavorful basis. Hunks of corn and different goodies float amid golden broth.
Montalvo and his group prepare dinner every thing contemporary daily. There are not any leftovers served right here. Something that’s nonetheless round at closing time is donated to Orlando’s El Shaddai Christian Church.
“They provide the meals to people who find themselves hungry,” Montalvo says. “Something left, the pork, the hen, every thing — goes to feed individuals.”
All people loves him, Rodriquez, his brother-in-law advert libs mid-translation.
“It’s the best way he treats individuals. I believe that’s actually why they love the place a lot. He’s so humble. He’s so fashionable now, however he don’t act prefer it,” Rodriquez says. “He’s simply there, exterior, cooking, checking every thing. He’s so good to everyone. And I believe that’s a part of his success.”
Certainly, Montalvo opens his doorways, and even his parking zone, to everyone. A latest weekend competition noticed a bunch of distributors, many promoting tokens of Puerto Rico, from shirts to hats to stickers, and others promoting meals.
“I don’t care,” he says, pleased to share his personal traces of shoppers with native vehicles and pop-ups promoting sushi, pinchos, pizza, even lechón. “There’s a whole lot of enterprise for everyone.”
And extra from St. Cloud of late. Montalvo’s latest win on the St. Cloud Se Pone Sabroso competitors, beating out 9 different lechoneras for the distinction, has cemented his native rep. And shortly, he says, the individuals down there and elsewhere might be able to get pleasure from his meals with much less of a drive.
With two meals vehicles sitting idle, Montalvo’s plans for the brand new 12 months embrace often scheduled highway journeys across the state: Kissimmee, Ocala, Jacksonville and Tampa. Every staffed with groups that present up within the morning, prepare dinner the meat on-site after which serve ’til sellout.
“I need all of the individuals in Florida to know my meals, my father’s seasoning,” he tells me.
So do I. Get there earlier than they do, Orlando.
Discover me on Fb, TikTok, Twitter or Instagram @amydroo or on the OSFoodie Instagram account @orlando.foodie. Electronic mail: amthompson@orlandosentinel.com, For extra foodie enjoyable, be part of the Let’s Eat, Orlando Fb group.
In the event you go
Lechonera El Sazón de mi Viejo: 11425 Lake Underhill Street in Orlando, 321-682-6220; fb.com/p/Lechonera-El-SazpercentC3percentB3n-de-mi-Viejo-100051041237497