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Overcast From Chile to Rockaway: Juanito’s Bakery
Anthony Natoli strolled across the street from Sip This one day and ordered an egg sandwich from Juanito’s Bakery, the small Chilean eatery at 113 Rockaway Ave.
“The eggs were like clouds,” he recalled. “It’s unreal, man.”
The sandwich wasn’t on the menu, but owner Juanito Acevedo agreed to make it for him. That continued for the rest of the week as Natoli returned each day. He eventually worked his way down the whole menu, delighting in its unique accents on simple classics like the hot dog and beef sandwiches with avocado, the restaurant’s signature ingredient.
Natoli remembers the pizza place that used to occupy the space — he didn’t like the pizza — and admires how Juanito uses the pizza oven to bake his own bread, which Natoli called the best in Valley Stream. “He’s so operating in the skeleton of this other place,” he said. “It’s so cool.”
Most of the customers he sees there are Hispanic. “I’m kind of like this weird white guy that goes in there sometimes,” he said.
One of those times was in March, when he picked up some pastries to bring home for Easter. The desserts are Juanito’s specialty; his wife, Edith Acevedo, does the hot food.
The couple came to Valley Stream from San Antonio 25 years ago. They had worked for a large food service company in Chile and were offered employment at a small store in the U.S. similar to what they have now, which they opened on their own seven years ago. They work the restaurant as their 27-year-old son, Damian, serves in the U.S. Army in Kuwait.
The food appears uncomplicated, which belies the strong savory flavors it packs. Most orders come with a side of pebre, a Chilean version of a salsa and hot sauce fusion. Poured inside the popular churrasco, or beef sandwich, the stuff explodes on the taste buds.
All of the sandwiches, most of which feature beef or pork, are staples of the Chilean diet, according to Vladimir Rees, who runs the counter at Juanito’s. The ave palta, or chicken salad with avocado, is another customer favorite, along with the beef empanadas, he said. More empanadas were added to the menu due to customer demand, he added, including shrimp with cheese.
Juanito’s pastries are also popular, Rees said, especially those filled with dulce de leche. The tres leches cake is Juanito’s own creation, a Chilean adaptation of the Puerto Rican and Dominican styles. The more unique offerings include pineapple cake, Chilean donuts called Berlins, and lucumba cake, which contains jelly made from the waba, a tropical fruit.
The food at Juanito’s has attracted the attention of Newsday, which ran a small feature on the restaurant in April, and it will be featured on an episode of Verizon FiOS1’s “Restaurant Hunter” next month.
Natoli said he hoped more people would discover its menu. “I wish more people knew what I knew about it,” he said.
