In January 2012, Chef Stuart Snowhite and his girlfriend, Jenny Bianca, opened The Taco Spot on the Hollywood Beach boardwalk in Florida. The quaint, thatch-roofed restaurant, quickly made an impression on boardwalk locals and visitors alike. Taco Spot was featured in the Miami Herald with an article highlighting its unique, homemade sauces. It also reached #1 on the popular customer review website, Trip Advisor before its first year of opening.
According to customer reviews found on Trip Advisor and Yelp, the restaurant’s view is unbeatable, featuring elevated outside bar seats facing the sea. The service is friendly and efficient; the ambience transports customers to their own, private island and most importantly, the flavors never fail to amaze. Unique drinks such as the Coco Loco (served in full coconuts) and the Pineapple Colada (Piña Colada served in a fresh pineapple) create picturesque moments for visitors and locals alike. The radio is always set to tropical tunes that never let customers forget they’re in South Florida.
Chef Stuart Snowhite’s fusion of Mexican, Californian and Asian zest, paired with the flavorful sauces he and partner Jenny Bianca created, proved key to keeping their loyal customers coming back. The Westin-trained gourmet chef spent many years perfecting his signature menu, incorporating elements from his personal chef days when he cooked for NBA athletes Quentin Richardson and Joe Johnson, his personal age of exploration, when he and Bianca traveled across Mexico, sampling dozens of tacos and his days at Hollywood Beach restaurant, Taco Beach Shack, where he helped create the menu and bring the ratings to #1 on Trip Advisor.
As a personal chef to professional athletes, he honed his skills in healthy cooking; a skill that would take him from weighing 275 lbs to 150. He reflects these healthy choices in the restaurant’s cuisine. The Taco Spot menu boasts successful flavor marriages between unlikely ingredient pairings such as the signature customer favorite, the Korean Short Rib Taco: a spicy, shredded, short rib taco packing an intense flavor and juicy punch paired with a kimchi that undergoes the in-house fermentation process for at least 2 weeks. Crisp cabbage provides the freshness; pico de gallo and cilantro add the extra touch. The smoky, homemade chipotle sauce pulls it all together. “Everything we have, I make from scratch,” says Chef Snowhite, “The guacamole, sangria, infused fruits, the shells. We make our own hard shells. It’s crunchy, it’s fresh, a totally different experience than if I bought it from a distributor. I’m doing it to control the ingredients, to put a better product out there.”