Black Palm Restaurant on St. Pete Beach Offers Latin Fusion Cuisine

Black Palm Restaurant owners Lui and Kathy Arango traveled to St. Petersburg on their honeymoon and never left.

“We liked it here and so I basically went home and sold everything” Lui Arango said.

The Arangos, originally from Dallas, signed a contract via fax and relocated to Florida. Almost nine years later, their Latin fusion restaurant is a popular site for weddings and fine dining on St. Pete Beach.

Fare at Black Palm has a strong Latin influence. Describing it as "Florida-Caribbean fusion," Arango has brought Northern Latino cuisine to an area "full of Italian and Mexican restaurants," he said.

“The people involved in Northern Latino cuisine believe that this kind of food is underexposed in this country,” Arango said.

Arango’s menu is adventurous and diverse. When originally creating it, Arango drove from his location in Pass-A-Grille to Clearwater, picking up more than 60 menus at restaurants along the way.

“I spread them out on the bar and built my menu based on what (other restaurants) didn’t have. The one thing in common from here to Clearwater is grouper. That’s the one fish I’ve never sold,” he said.

Popular menu items include the Chilean sea bass, 8-ounce center cut angus filet and the Lui’s Signature Paella Marinera. Claiming to cook the involved seafood dish in exactly 13 minutes, Arango uses orzo pasta instead of rice and leaves out chicken or chorizo sausage. 

“Paella should be all seafood. (Customers) can order chorizo on the side and mess up [their] own paella,” said Arango.

Arango's wife, Kathy, manages financial and organization operations. The pair met while working in the wedding business, and Lui cites that as their specialty.

“We liked the location because it was romantic and we saw an opportunity to do weddings here,” he said.

The wedding business at Black Palm Restaurant is thriving, with an average of 500 weddings taking place each year along St. Pete Beach.

Black Palm can serve a wedding of 100 guests comfortably. An outdoor patio is used for a cocktail hour and later opened up for dancing.

“It has been the key to our survival,” Arango said. 

If You Go

Black Palm Restaurant

Phone: 727-360-5000