By Steve Cook
It might not be exactly what one would call a “sixth sense,” but Rigoberto Parada sees opportunity, often where others have completely overlooked it. The soft-spoken owner of Andrades International Restaurant in Old Towne Petersburg saw opportunity several years ago when a friend asked him to help turn his Maryland restaurant into a profitable operation.
 Parada had never managed a restaurant prior to the occasion. But, he had done just about everything else. “I started as a busboy,” he says. “I’ve been a bar back, a waiter, a cook...”
Parada who had been working as a cook at the 116 Club in Washington, D.C. took that experience, to his friend’s restaurant. Within three months, the restaurant, which had been on the verge of closing due to lack of business, was packed with customers. When offered an opportunity to form a partnership in running the restaurant, Parada declined, telling his friend he wanted to open his own restaurant.
“I decided to move away from the area and go somewhere completely different,” he says. In early 2005, the native El Salvordan discovered Old Towne. “I saw this building,” he says of the quaint facility housing his restaurant. “I loved it. Other people may have only seen grass,” Parada says of the huge lot adjacent to the restored 1920s-era structure. “I saw a place for a patio. I saw room to add a bar (which he hopes to do in the near future).”
What Parada also saw was the future of Old Towne. For many years, efforts have been made to restore what had long been an area of Petersburg’s downtown consisting primarily of abandoned homes, businesses, and warehouses. Time after time, efforts to revitalize Old Towne had failed.
But, by the time Parada came along about two years ago, the business climate was decidedly much more positive. There were others who had invested in the area, and who were (and are) working to turn Old Towne into a popular destination spot with shops, restaurants, art galleries, and the like.
Parada also saw an opportunity for something that had not yet been brought into the resurging section of town...an upscale restaurant. Thus was born Andrades International Restaurant.
 Andrades doesn’t offer something unique just to Old Towne Petersburg, but offers a blend of Latin American and Spanish cuisines that you probably won’t find anywhere else in Central Virginia.
And, from all appearances, Central Virginians are discovering Andrades, which regularly does a brisk business for both lunch and dinner. Guests of this most unique restaurant are learning that, as Parada says, “there’s a huge difference between Mexican and Cuban or Peruvian and Spanish cooking.”
He takes the time to explain some of the differences. Mexican cuisine, he tells me, features tortillas. Cuban tends more towards rice and beans, and utilizes dried herbs and spices for flavoring. On the other hand, Peruvian cooking makes use of sauces. “It’s more like Oriental cuisine,” he says. “Everything is fresh...ginger, jalapenos, onions.”
As for Spanish cuisine, Parada says “It’s more steak and seafood. They love fresh seafood.
A visit or many visits to Andrades would be well recommended as an opportunity to enjoy a variety of ethnic dishes. Rigoberto Parada’s vision comes to fruition daily in Andrades International Restaurant, and he extends an invitation to come and taste that vision. |
