Diners enjoy lunch at Fiesta Mexicana in Myrtle Beach, one of many Hispanic and Latino restaurants to make its home on the Grand Strand.
1) Diners enjoy lunch at Fiesta Mexicana in Myrtle Beach, one of many Hispanic and Latino restaurants to make its home on the Grand Strand.
The ‘Grande’ Strand?
Juan Serrato, president and CEO of Carolina Food Service distributorship in Loris, caters to Hispanic and Latino restaurants on the Strand. He saw the boom begin after the COVID-19 pandemic. Not only did diners finally start to venture outside of their homes, they also stepped outside their culinary comfort zones in search of something new.
His company has recently expanded operations to keep pace with the increasing demand, which has simmered down some since the initial post-COVID explosion, but the growth has proven to be both deep and wide, he said. Not only are there more restaurants from which to choose, their offerings are also more diverse.
“Now you see a lot of restaurants opening that are Brazilian, Colombian, Peruvian, Venezuelan, Honduran … every country has their own recipes and ingredients, just the like in the U.S.,” said Serrato, comparing it to Cajun, soul food and Tex-Mex as diverse subsets of American cuisine. “Even within Mexico there are different states with significant variations.”
While the vast majority of his customers are Mexican restaurants, Serrato said many Americans think of “Mexican food” as a catch-all, unaware the diverse selection of offerings extend well below the southern border. Add to that spicy mix the tastes of the Caribbean (Cuba, Puerto Rico and Jamaica), Central America (El Salvador, Honduras and Panama) and South America (Argentina, Brazil and Chile) and you get a broad range of flavors.
“We’re always trying to diversify what we offer because so many people want authentic food from their state or country,” said Serrato, who hails from Jalisco and Michoacan in central-west Mexico. “Every region is different and people love what they grew up eating so that’s what we try to provide.”
Braza Chicken recently replaced a former Arby’s in Myrtle Beach.
A taste of home
The number of immigrants in search of a taste of home is driving the demand, data shows. The surging popularity of South and Central American and Mexican cuisine on the Grand Strand is directly correlated to the growing Hispanic and Latino population in Horry County, which rose 46 percent from 2010 to 2020 — double the national rate, according to U.S. Census data.
