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ST. LOUIS PARK, MINN. - Chris Paddock, founder of 4-month-old Mojito, just outside Minneapolis, carefully has geared his new Latino-inspired restaurant to the local market he knows so well.
Not one to open a restaurant on a whim, Paddock and partner and executive chef Pat Weber spent 18 months on an investigative travel-and-tasting odyssey through South and North America before finalizing the Mojito concept.
"I wanted to do a concept that had potential to grow beyond the Twin Cities, and I didn't want to just do meat and potatoes," said Paddock, who also owns the smaller Bobino Cafe & Wine Bar in northeast Minneapolis.
Inspired by visiting several churrascaria concepts on the two continents, Paddock learned he didn't want to duplicate that style of tableside serving with big skewers of meat. "It always seemed like my dining conversation was being interrupted," he said.
He also wanted to create a concept varied enough to tempt neighborhood customers to come in more than once a week, especially since the Twin Cities suburbs...