‘A push for more attention’: Ronny Jaramillo is elevating Ecuadorian cuisine in Brooklyn

By Lamar Salter

It is a breezy night and 390 Social, a chic cocktail bar, restaurant and event space in Park Slope owned by Ronny Jaramillo, is hosting a special pop-up seafood dinner. The dinner is an ode to Bar Crudo, the oyster bar that Jaramillo used to run just a few buildings up the street that closed its doors some months back. Although no longer operational, Bar Crudo is close to Jaramillo’s heart, which makes this night particularly important. The dinner, in four courses, features a diverse offering of seafood: oysters, of course, ceviche, and the main: an incredible seafood paella.

But things aren’t going to plan.

Jaramillo is shorthanded after his lead cook fractured his pelvis, plus the oven is on the fritz. He’s had to prepare the seafood paella multiple times because the rice just isn’t quite right.

Nevertheless, he overcomes and the dinner goes off without a hitch. Customers are raving.

“The food was excellent,” says customer Will Holtzman. “I’m not a huge ceviche fan but that was like my favorite dish of the night.”

Toward the end of the night, Jaramillo comes out and shakes hands with customers and offers everyone a lemon drop shot. He then makes a toast.

“Today has been crazy. I was down a person and I was sweating in the kitchen,” he announces to everyone. “And in that moment, I realized, in a weird way that I hope you guys understand: I remembered how much I fucking love it.”

Yes, chef (Courtesy of Jaramillo)

Blessed by Bourdain
Jaramillo says he lives with the “curse” of seeing the glass half full, a trait passed on to him from his grandmother, who was his primary caregiver growing up in Ecuador. Jaramillo wouldn’t meet his parents, who lived in the U.S. at the time, until he was 17 years old. And It was his grandmother who taught him how to cook, shortly before she passed away.

“She would never let me open up a flame or anything, until she got sick,” Jaramillo says. “She was in bed for a long time and then one day she just got up and said, ‘You’re going to make and eat this until your mom gets here. And don’t ask anybody to make you anything.’ So I lit up a flame and I made myself rice, cheese and chicken.”

After moving to the States, Jaramillo studied culinary arts and found work in catering and later managed kitchens of famous restaurants like Rosemary’s in the West Village.

And then came the opportunity of a lifetime: running a pop-up — the first iteration of what would become Bar Crudo — for the Long Beach International Film Festival. Hundreds of people would be in attendance, including Anthony Bourdain.

Once again, things weren’t going according to plan: No stove. Jaramillo saw the glass half full and got creative.

“I quickly changed everything and I did it as a kitchen presentation. I literally made huge bowls of ceviche and I was showing people and explaining how to make and mix it.”

His ceviche was a hit. Dozens of people surrounded his tiny pop-up to order again and again. And then Bourdain came to try.

“He was like, ‘You know you should make this a restaurant,’” Jaramillo says.

So that’s what he did. Jaramillo has now opened five of his own restaurants, three of which operate along Fifth Avenue in Park Slope.

Chela came first. Previously a taqueria with $3 margaritas but a seedy reputation, Jaramillo transformed the business into a staple of the neighborhood, perfect for a family dinner or weekend brunch with menu offerings like birria tacos and branzino.

But it’s his latest venture that is particularly special: Chuzo Culture, an Ecuadorian sports bar.

Ecuadorian spicy wings (Photo courtesy of Ronny Jaramillo)

“I realized that the older I get, you know, the more I need to connect to where I come from,” Jaramillo says. “Ecuadorians, we tend to be very humble,” he adds. “But the best restaurants I’ve ever worked — French, Italian, Michelin star places — they all have Ecuadorian cooks. Ecuadorian cuisine needed a push for more attention.”

His identity is present in every option on the menu with options like llapingacho (Ecuadorian stuffed potatoes), Ecuadorian spicy wings, and imported Ecuadorian beer. But it’s the cocktails that provide the direct link to his childhood with offerings like Amora, a foamy drink created with Ecuadorian blackberries called mora.

Llapingacho (Photo courtesy Ronny Jaramillo)

“When you go to Ecuador and you’re in the city, it’s very often you have this like very cheesy, yeasty smell in the air and you know that close by there’s a place that makes cheesy bread that you eat with a big cup of yogurt, and usually the flavor is mora.” Jaramillo says. “So this cocktail is in memory of that.”

The Amora cocktail: Vodka, Ecuadorian blackberry super syrup, tiki components, citrus, egg whites (Courtesy Ronny Jaramillo)

‘How do you do this?’
Like other Brooklyn-based restaurateurs, Jaramillo has faced challenges, some as part of the natural ebbs and flows of business, and other issues amplified by the pandemic.

“A lot of people come to me recently, asking me for help. Like, ‘how do you do this?,” Jaramillo says. “And what I realized right away is that a lot of these failures are happening because we just don’t understand what’s going on.”

When Miss American Pie, the beloved bakery on Fifth Avenue, closed its storefront last March after five years in the neighborhood, for example, Jaramillo’s wife Dana reached out to its owner, Lindsey Hill, and offered to host a pop-up at 390 Social, which will be held the first weekend of May.

“One thing I always rave about the Park Slope community is that all of the businesses on Fifth take care of each other,” Hill says.

Jaramillo also plans to host another Bar Crudo pop-up dinner at the end of May, but it’s efforts like Chuzo Culture that also bring something new to Brooklyn, a consequence, Jaramillo surmises, of continuing to see the glass half full.

“It might not be recognized as the best restaurant, but I know that there are young [Ecuadorian] people who’re going to come to the restaurant,” Jaramillo says.” They’re going to see something different, something else that is going to start a movement and maybe somebody will take it to a different level.”