'Think of home': Zarza Latin Food & Grill, popular in Lakeland, is opening in Winter Haven

A Lakeland man's pursuit of his American Dream has led him to opening a second restaurant in Winter Haven.

Richard Avelino will celebrate the grand opening of Zarza Latin Food & Grill's second location at 6980 Cypress Gardens Blvd. this Saturday. For Avelino, 53, it's the next step in a dream to provide his family with a secure future.

"I'm so happy," he said. "I'm feeling something is very good with this one."

Avelino and his wife, Maria, began serving up chicken and flattened skirt steaks in South American style roughly seven years ago when they launched Zarza's at 4648 Cleveland Heights Blvd. in Shoppes of Hallam. Avelino said it was a little nerve wracking.

"I knew it was so hard to start up a business, but I knew it was a way my family could move forward," Avelino said, with his 17-year-old daughter Angelina providing some help translating from Spanish to English.

An immigrant from Colombia, Avelino said his first job was in the back of an Alaskan restaurant, where he learned the industry from the ground up. Cooking had always been a passion of his, Avelino said, but his prior career had been as a businessman.

Upon moving to Florida more than 20 years ago, Avelino continued to work a variety of restaurant jobs both in the kitchen and management. Then, he took a stab at opening his own restaurant using his combination of skills in 2017.

Avelino said he chose the restaurant's name, Zarza, very intentionally. It's drawn from the Biblical story of Moses and the burning bush — which in Spanish is "La Zarza Ardiente" — to symbolize something that would never die out.

True to its name, Zarza quickly captured a steady stream of customers in South Lakeland and survived the COVID pandemic shutdowns. Now, he hopes to bring the same South American cuisine to rapidly growing southeast Winter Haven.

"We have reached a point where we are able to experiment with a dish, but we don't want to change its essence."

Customers can expect to find a familiar menu in Winter Haven filled with breakfast tacos, fried rice chaufa, a Peruvian dish combining seasoned rice mixed with vegetables and meats, and more familiar entrees of frajitas and burritos. Avelino described his cooking style as South American influenced drawing from his Colombian roots with a touch and dash of other countries, including Peru, Nicaragua, Cuba and others.

"The point is to have everyone taste something and think of home," he said.

Chef Julian Montoya will command of Zarza's Winter Haven kitchen.

For those raised with more traditional American cuisine, Avelino hopes Zarza offers people a chance to taste and experience a variety of traditional South American flavors.

"I feel I do everything with my heart, and people taste my food and receive with their heart," he said.

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The Winter Haven location is done in a combination of a soothing gray-and-maroon color theme with a mix of tables, booths and countertop seating available. It has two televisions mounted, as the Avelino family is working hard this week to put on finishing touches, including some additional decor.

Its grand opening is set for Saturday, opening at 7 a.m. to serve up breakfast through dinner at 9 p.m. For more information, keep an eye on its Facebook page at facebook.com/zarzalatinfoodandgrill.

With any luck, Avelino said he hopes to open a few additional Zarza locations after Winter Haven is launched and possibly franchise out in the future.

Sara-Megan Walsh can be reached at swalsh@theledger.com or 863-802-7545. Follow on X @SaraWalshFl.

This article originally appeared on The Ledger: Zarza Latin Food & Grill, a Lakeland hit, is opening in Winter Haven