When you first step foot in Milford’s Flamingo Drive Bar & Lounge, the new restaurant from brothers Paul and Neil Barraco of The Governor (which, not coincidentally, shares a wall on Old Milford’s Main Street), your initial reaction is likely to be one of pure vibe. With a heavily pink color palette, eclectic decor and adventurous menu, Flamingo Drive makes a quick and utterly delightful first impression. Your second thought, though, is probably going to be, “Wait, Miami in Milford?”
“I think it was one of those things where we thought, there’s nothing really like this anywhere,” says Paul, who also serves as chef at Flamingo Drive. “For us, it’s a personal story. It’s not about trying to do a theme restaurant. It was more like something that tells the story of some of the food that we ate. We lived in Miami for half our lives, and then we moved to Milford, so it’s this interesting dichotomy of the two places.”
Barraco describes growing up in South Florida as an eclectic dining experience informed by cultural cuisines of locales such as Cuba, Puerto Rico, the Dominican Republic, and Haiti, not to mention the Italian food of his family’s own heritage. “Growing up, we didn’t even know we were eating ethnic food,” he recalls.
Milford, too, plays a key role in Barraco’s cooking career. After graduating from the Midwest Culinary Institute in 2000 and working all around Cincinnati—including at Tousey House Tavern, Silverglades, and a handful of private golf clubs, followed by a stint in consultancy—he found a home at 20 Brix and its sister pizzeria, Padrino’s, where he worked for 14 years alongside Neil, whom he convinced to move back to Ohio from Florida to work with him. When the two decided to open a place of their own in 2020, they didn’t look far, securing a spot just up the road for their first foray into restaurant ownership with The Governor.
PHOTOGRAPH BY RODNEY WILSON
“He had gotten out of the restaurant industry,” Paul explains. “But I wanted my brother back in town with me, so I decided the only way to do it was to open up a restaurant and hire him.”
The Governor found immediate success in Milford, even drawing a visit from Flavortown mayor, Guy Fieri, for a spot on Diners, Drive-Ins and Dives. When the building next door became available, the Barracos decided to jump into their second concept with Flamingo Drive.
“We took over the space thinking it was going to be a cosmetic makeover and we’d just throw a restaurant into it, but this 100-and-something-year-old building had a lot hiding behind the walls,” Paul remembers. “It turned into about a 19-month project, but we wound up with basically a brand-new building, and it looks really great.”
Filled with retro-style furnishings (including tiled surfaces, terrazzo bar top and cozy-as-heck couch seating), aquatic wall art and, of course, a ton of pink accents, the interior is designed to transport diners to southern Florida.
Menu offerings are eclectic, delicious and served on Cuban newspaper plating paper, with entrees such as the chorizo Frita Burger, fried jerk chicken and, of course, a hearty Cuban sandwich. Daily specials are important to Barraco, too, providing opportunities to create dishes using the local farm products he prefers to use. Appetizers and desserts such as key lime tart round out the eats.
Photo courtesy Flamingo Drive
And then there are the drinks. “The bar program is very rum-forward,” he says. “Lots of really fun cocktails that fit the style of the food. The wine list goes the same way, Swiss-army-knife wines that fit where we’re going food-wise.”
The Harrison’s Thrasher, a jalapeño Campari rum cocktail with tropical overtones and rum bitters, is already established as a Flamingo Drive favorite.
The bar program is definitely a main plot line at Flamingo Drive. In addition to the highly creative drinks menu, the lounge features Latin music, jazz and blues on weekends, and is open late five nights a week which, despite Flamingo Drive’s warm welcome to Milford, does present an area for growth for the Barraco brothers.
“This was something that we knew we had to kind of dig our heels into,” Paul says, acknowledging that Old Milford isn’t necessarily hopping at 11 p.m. on a Wednesday night. “We knew we could maintain the restaurant side of things, but we decided, hey, why don’t we try to build a culture? There’s enough people here, and it’s been cool to see this place popping on a Friday night with a band and there’s 60, 70 people in here. But through the week, we have work to do. We’re willing and able to do it.”
227 Main St., Milford, (513) 444-4190, flamingodrivelounge.com
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