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Bandidas, Lakeland’s hottest test kitchen, is about so much more than just its food.
Stephanie Bernal Gregg, one of the founders of Bandidas, said it’s more about shaping the way Lakeland approaches — and tastes — new adventures.
“We’re really trying to provide new experiences to Lakeland and sort of allow people to be exposed to more cuisines and more cultures and just offer something that’s unique here,” Bernal Gregg, 34, said. “I just think there’s there’s a lot of opportunity for a more diverse and multicultural food scene. And since we come from places where we got to experience that, [we’re] kind of trying to bring that here.”
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Bernal Gregg is from Austin and moved to Lakeland three and a half years ago. She started hosting events on her front porch and that morphed into Buena Market, a pop-up market that blossomed during the pandemic.
It was through Buena Market that she started collaborating with Bandidas’ two other leading women: Giovanna Favilli, 26, and Gabriella Vigoreaux, 31, who recently got engaged. Favilli and Vigoreaux grew up in Polk County but met in New York, where they both attended culinary school and worked in the food scene.
Additionally, Favilli owns Nicaraguan eatery Casita Verde and Vigoreaux runs Vicky G’s, an empanada and catering company. Both operate their businesses out of Catapult, a Lakeland co-working space and business incubator.
The three launched Bandidas in May with a Mother’s Day brunch at Good Thyme and have quickly evolved to put on another five events by themselves and through Buena Market. They call their pop-up test kitchens Bandidas socials, where guests are invited not just to eat but to dance the night away.
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Each pop-up kitchen features a brand-new menu as Bandidas navigates what kind of food their customers respond to best. Although all three women come from Latin cultures — Bernal Gregg is Chicana, Favilli is Nicaraguan and Vigoreaux is Puerto Rican — their food is not just limited to theirs or Latin culture in general, they said.
“We’re definitely testing things as we go along,” Vigoreaux said. “This entire process is like, ‘What are people responding to? What do they like? What are they asking for more of? What are they buying? What are they not buying?'”
Vigoreaux called Bandidas socials “food sanctuaries,” where people of all ages and backgrounds can gather for cuisine, music and community. While Bandidas may still be trying to find its niche in the market, there’s one thing the venture already does well: inclusivity.
“It’s like a quinceañera and everyone’s invited,” Vigoreaux said.
Providing an inclusive space
The last Bandidas social and pop-up market was on Oct. 1 and celebrated LGBTQ+ pride as COVID-19 shut down usual events.
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Bandidas invited friends, family and newcomers to the Poor Porker to munch on chicken, pork and sweet potato skewers served on hand-rolled flour tortillas as well as yucca fries, pineapple pie and raspado, or tropical shaved ice. Those who went could grab their small bites before hitting the dance floor.
The pride social was an event Favilli got to have a hand in throwing that would have meant the world to her growing up.
“Being queer, being a lesbian, growing up here — I didn’t really see myself,” Favilli said. “And going to New York allowed me that freedom, even though I was already out, to see people on the sidewalk that looked like me, to be able to go to a bar that was designated for queer people and realize that it was very normal and that there are a lot of us.”
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Favilli said when she moved back to Lakeland because of the coronavirus, she wasn’t sure how she was going to handle being in a town less open to providing inclusive queer spaces. Through Bandidas, she’s made her own.
“The last social … so many queer people came that saw it was a pride event and were happy to see that someone in Lakeland was doing something like that. And that’s just one of our goals, my goals, with Bandidas, is being that for somebody else. When I was younger, I wish I would have had that,” Favilli said. “I hate the fact that I had to go, escape to another city, to feel like I was finding myself and feel like I was becoming more confident in my queerness. We should, that should be provided here.”
Having access to places that celebrate LGBT identities was critical to Vigoreaux’s growth not just as a person, but as a chef.
“I was lucky to be part of a really amazing queer food community in New York and it formed so much of my identity of how I even learned to cook,” Vigoreaux said.
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She added that learning from minorities and people of color rather than just from the French chefs at school framed her cooking lens, which is something she tries to embody today.
The pride theme didn’t keep people away who don’t identify as part of the LGBTQ+ community. John Keller, a 55-year-old artist who’s lived in Lakeland nearly three decades, commented on a Bandidas Instagram post about the event, saying it was “a blast for this old straight guy. And the food was off the chain.”
Keller told The Ledger he’d never been to an event like the Bandidas pride social in all the time he’s spent in Lakeland.
“I was digging it. I had a ball,” Keller said. “It was just very pleasant. The ambiance of the venue, of the Poor Porker, and then all the energy that everyone, all the vendors that were there that night brought, and just the crowd that it drew.”
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Bernal Gregg said that people may come out to Bandidas events for multiple reasons, whether it’s because they’re Latin, want to dance some salsa, are gay, are foodies or just want to be in a fun environment.
“I think that’s such an important part of the identity of Bandidas, that inclusivity, but like there’s so much more to us,” Bernal Gregg said. “I think [we’re] just allowing ourselves to be a test kitchen and to be multifaceted, that way we find other people that are multifaceted.”
Favilli added that Bandidas events may be an opportunity for people to branch outside of their normal communities and find people who don’t look like them.
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“Maybe you didn’t understand it before. But then when you’re in a room and you’re both dancing to the same song that you both like and you’re eating food that you both like, that helps,” Favilli said. “Once you know somebody, it’s kind of hard to hate them.”
Embracing a Latin identity
Growing up in Polk County, Favilli and Vigoreaux found their Latin communities at home, even if they didn’t see it in other places.
“It’s hard to say I didn’t have Latin community growing up because my parents made that for me,” Vigoreaux said. “All their friends were Latin and they would throw these big parties and whether you were Latin or not, you’re coming and you’re listening to Tito Puente and you’re eating lechón.”
Favilli said she didn’t feel represented growing up. She was convinced she and her family were the only people from Nicaragua in all of Lakeland. Now, through Casita Verde, she gets to connect with people from her own culture.
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But exposure can have its drawbacks.
“I feel like if you aren’t from Nicaragua or you’re not Latin, I get clumped up with Mexican culture and food [or] Puerto Rican,” Favilli said. “Like whatever they have tried. If they’ve gone to Elena’s and they tried Cuban food, then they are referring to my stuff as Cuban food. Or they’re asking if I have whatever they sell.”
Vigoreaux has had a similar experience with Vicky G’s. Although people recognize there isn’t just one place to grab food like wings or burgers, they don’t extend the same grace to other foods. That’s why Bandidas has put a strong emphasis on being about much more than just Latin food or culture.
“If two or three people in this zip code make empanadas, we’re like constantly compared to each other,” Vigoreaux said. “I don’t want to be pigeonholed to empanadas. But I also don’t want to compete with other people that make them, which I think is a big reason why we don’t want to stick to our cultures and our foods, because we’re more than that.”
Bernal Gregg said growing up in Austin, which is big but segregated, she struggled to find diverse spaces. And she continued to have trouble when she moved to Lakeland to be closer to her husband’s family.
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“It is a little hard to find those diverse spaces but I began to find them and began to start to reconnect with my culture and my roots, my heritage. And as I became older, it became more important to me to be able to reconnect with that side of myself,” Bernal Gregg said. “When I moved here, I feel like it became even more important to me because I just wasn’t seeing it.”
Whatever identity a person is seeking to embrace and uplift at a Bandidas event, they’re welcome there. And Vigoreaux said Bandidas is exactly what Lakeland needed.
“It was like cathartic for people to start coming out and going to an event like that,” Vigoreaux said. “I think we started it at like, just the perfect time.”
What comes next for Bandidas?
Six months since launching, Bandidas is still figuring out what it wants to be. According to its mission statement, Bandidas doesn’t just want to feed you — “we want to be a part of your life.”
“Through the lens of food, we strive to create inclusive spaces where everyone is welcome,” the statement reads. “We’re still writing our story and we can’t wait to continue the conversation with all of you for years to come. Salud!”
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Vigoreaux said Bandidas is in its “coming out phase.” Down the line, its owners want to find a way to infuse their mission statement’s spirit into everything they do.
“Although it does seem like there’s not a concrete product and we’re just kind of experimenting, I do think that we eventually want to find a way to implement this philosophy into a daily routine for people in Lakeland,” Vigoreaux said. “Don’t just come to an event once a month and feel like you have your people. But like every day come get your coffee and feel like you have your people.”
For now, patrons will have to settle for pastries; Banididas has launched a wholesale portion of the business on top of its pop-up events and catering ventures. Bandidas sells scones, cookies, cake loaves and other baked goods at N+1 Coffee in Winter Haven and Concord Coffee in Lakeland. Their best seller is the Bandida bar, a homemade granola bar that Vigoreaux insisted be described as “thiccc.”
The goal is to extend that business to other locations.
Bandidas also recently launched the “Bandi Box,” a seasonal box that will include homemade provisions, a recipe project, handmade art and a playlist. The October recipe project is a mango curd galette and cost $38. The box includes mangoes from Favilli’s parents’ mango tree.
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And for Thanksgiving, Bandidas will serve pre-order pies, though Favilli — the “pie fiend” — emphasized they will not be in traditional holiday flavors. If those sell well, the pies will return for the Christmas season.
If you want to check out a Bandidas event, there will be a seasonal brunch at Good Thyme on Nov. 21.
And Bandidas promises there’s more exciting things to come.
“Ultimately, we’d like to be brick and mortar,” Vigoreaux said. “But right now, what makes the most sense with coming out of COVID and coming out of everything shutting down and reopening again is to continue doing pop-ups where we can, when we can. But we’re ready to park soon.”
A permanent space would have a spot for both food and dancing, so locals who put every Bandidas event on their calendar will always have somewhere to go.
“[Regulars have] said to me like, ‘If you guys weren’t hosting events, we wouldn’t know what to do on the weekends. We wouldn’t have anything to go fill our time with,'” Bernal Gregg said. “I think it’s provided that connection for other people.”
Maya Lora can be reached with tips or questions at mlora@gannett.com. Follow her on Twitter @mayaklora.
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