Welcome back, Larios. Miami’s king and queen of Cuban restaurants are cooking again

María Teresa Larios spends each day calling old friends and customers to alert them that she and her husband, Quintin Larios — Miami’s king and queen of Cuban cuisine — are cooking again.

When she tells them where, they react with a version of, “Que?”

Drive west on Quail Roost Drive, south on Krome Avenue, and pass acre after acre of farmland and nurseries. Pass the orchid farm. Pass the Tacos Locos taco truck.

Drive until you see what looks like a Hollywood backlot set for a spaghetti western, and you’ve arrived.

Push through swinging saloon doors in the façade of a western town, hang a left at the mechanical bull. And in a bus outfitted with a new stainless steel kitchen, 93-year-old Quintin Larios is cooking his signature Cuban food at Royd’s, a western-themed roadside attraction in the Redland.

“I like to say this is the Southernmost western town in the United States,” said Royd Lumus, a Miami-born developer of Cuban-American descent who has built this concept on part of his ornamental plant nursery.

“But with arroz and frijoles negros,” María Teresa adds.

The main draw: the founders of Casa Larios Cuban restaurant, who set the standard for Cuban food in Miami and later made a name for themselves by partnering with Emilio and Gloria Estefan to open Larios on the Beach.

After several years in forced retirement after business mistakes doomed their original restaurants, they started cooking again at a family member’s restaurant, La Fragua. And it was a hit. But the pandemic crushed the restaurant and it was sold in 2021. The couple both got COVID and again retired — it seemed like for good.

They needed someone like Royd Lemus.

Bringing back the ‘kings of Cuban food’

Lemus grew up going to the original Casa Larios with his mother, stuffing fresh ham croquetas into his mouth at the counter. His family were more than regulars. They became like extended family to the Larios clan.

A Columbus High and Florida International grad, Lemus went first into politics, interning with former Miami-Dade County mayor Alex Penelas, then into construction, building high-end homes. But the other side to his life was in the Redland.

Lemus bought up several plots of land in Miami-Dade’s farming community, where he raised ornamental and fruit trees. He hoped to turn the tract of land that bordered Krome Avenue into a farmer’s market.

It wasn’t until October 2019 that he took a leap forward. He drew up plans to build a sort-of western town on that front acre, a covered area with a western theme — and good food. It’s called Royd’s but he nicknamed it The Gateway, named for his Gateway Tree Farm. What kind of food they’d serve, he hadn’t settled on, until he heard about Quintin and María Teresa retiring.

“Who better than the kings of Cuban food?” Lemus said.

He visited the couple at their home, complete with plans and his vision. This would be a wide-open roadside attraction, to catch “agri-tourists,” he said, heading through to the Everglades and the Keys. He would build out a horse-riding rink, a petting zoo, a pair of dog parks for weary travelers.

And for food, three food buses: One dedicated to fresh fruit shakes and desserts made from his land’s fruit, a second dedicated to sandwiches and a third to hearty cuisine — the Cuban cuisine for which Larios was famous: vaca frita, ox tail, carne con papa, even the oven-baked chicken that Gloria Estefan loved.

“He showed us all these plans and we said, ‘Whatever you need, we’re in,’” Quintin Larios said.

‘Like family’

Every day, Quintin and María Teresa — married for 62 years — carpool to work with another couple. At 3 p.m. they have lunch together. And an hour later, every day, Lemus, his wife, or the couple’s daughter, Carmen, brings them home.

“I’m super happy for them,” Carmen Larios said one afternoon while picking them up. “This gets them out of the house and my dad loves what he does.

Anyone who wonders how involved the couple is need only pop in unannounced. They will find Quintin at work in the kitchen with a pair of his longtime cooks, Sergio Aguilar, who has worked with the Larios for more than 30 years, and Angel Ricardo, a fellow line cook for 12 years.

“We don’t even have to look at one another at this point,” Ricardo said. “When the tickets start coming in, the food starts going out.”

Aguilar had been working in Texas for several months after La Fragua was sold, but when Quintin, who goes by Nene, called him to come help him in a new spot, Aguilar left the same month.

“Nene told me, ‘You know I rely on you.’ And I love them like family,” Aguilar said. “He is like my father. And I call her Mamá.”

Out front, server Misleydi Benitez, who worked for the couple since 2002 at Casa Larios in South Miami, helps María Teresa lead the dining room. She stopped in one Saturday afternoon to say hello, found the Gateway short staffed, and put on an apron to help.

“When I come here, it doesn’t even feel like I’m working. It feels like family, like I’m home,” Benitez said.

Miami found Larios in the Redland

Weekends are when The Gateway comes to life.

Live music fills the air and curious visitors take their shot with the mechanical bull. The scent of Cuban food pours out of the bus. And every Sunday there’s a pig roast. At 2 p.m., Quintin Larios leaves his work station to snap the tail ceremoniously off the lechon.

Meanwhile, old customers fill the picnic tables that María Teresa attends to.

“They come from Miami. They come from Coral Gables. They come from the beach. It’s incredible,” Royd Lemus said.

Words catch in María Teresa’s throat as she recalls the smiles on familiar faces. And her eyes fill with tears to see crowds have found them once again.

‘It’s just so moving to know that my people…” she says, pausing, “my people have followed me.”

Royd’s

Address: 20800 SW 177th Ave., in the Redland

Hours: 8:30 a.m. to 5 p.m., Wednesday-Thursday; until 7 p.m., Friday and Sunday; until 8 p.m. Saturday.

More info: Roydssfl.com