“A taste to remember, the place you love!” That is the slogan that adorns the mission statement of PANNA’s, a Latino family restaurant business that started in Miami Beach in 2000. The brainchild behind the concept is Mauricio and Beatriz Meneses, who opened a Latin bakery on Collins Avenue in Miami Beach.
After a few years, they discovered that PANNA was not only created the country’s best cheese stick “tequeños” and ham & cheese filled bread “cachitos,” but also an array of exceptional arepas, sandwiches and salads. Combine that with an inviting atmosphere for families and friends, you have a vertically integrated organization that produces exquisite Latin pastries for PANNA and third-party partners, plus a distribution center.
In case you are wondering, in many Latin American countries, “pana” is a friend—someone you can trust, a person you like to share and spend time with. The Meneses added an extra “n” to, in their words, make it “double friendly.”
We sat down with api(+) President and CEO Juan Romero, AIA, NCARB, to get his thoughts on the design of PANNA’s new prototype restaurant.

In terms of environments design, a conviction to point of view is another quality we see time and time again with the most successful brands. These successful brands know who they are and who their audience is.

Give us a snapshot of the PANNA brand and what makes it so unique.
PANNA is a family owned chain of quick service Latino restaurants throughout South Florida. It offers a diverse menu of Venezuelan, Colombian and Argentinean comfort foods such as arepas, cachitos and tequeños.
PANNA began in 2000, when Mauricio and Beatriz Meneses opened a Latin bakery on Collins Avenue in Miami Beach. After a few years, they discovered PANNA’s potential to expand its offer to include lunch and dinner foods like arepas, sandwiches and salads in addition to baked goods. Since the beginning, PANNA has been an inviting place for families and friends to gather over good food.
The name PANNA plays off the word pana, which in many Latin American countries means a friend, someone you can trust, and someone you like to share and spend time with.
What type of consumer is PANNA targeting?
PANNA’s primary target audience is Latino people either living in or visiting South Florida. It aims to provide fresh food at a good value in a casual, family friendly environment.
What is the inspiration behind the concept?
The inspiration for the PANNA prototype environment is the three most prominent qualities that PANNA is known for—Latin American flavors, fresh, high-quality ingredients, and memorable times with friends and family over shared meals.
Walk us through why and how it designed the way it is?
The new Aventura location is PANNA’s flagship and seventh location to date. Each existing location varies in size, layout and design. With a goal to grow the chain, we were tasked with refining the best aspects of each location and combining them into a prototype to be first built at this flagship Aventura location, and then rolled out. Our design intention was to create a modern, casual setting with a fun Latin vibe that complements the fresh Latin-American family dining experience and flavorful food.
Colors, materials and finishes throughout the restaurant were chosen to celebrate the fun, happy Latin flavors of PANNA. Warm wood tones and colorful bold striping on the walls, floor striping and playful graphics create a fully branded environment and a welcoming, joyous experience.
Strategically placed architectural elements intuitively guide customers through the restaurant and create a welcoming space to dine, while wall treatments and lighting create a sense of intimacy in the very tall space. The result is a family and community destination where enjoying a meal together is both a special and frequent occasion.
The restaurant environment celebrates the best parts of what makes PANNA a unique quick-service dining experience, and prepares the Meneses to continue growing the chain.
Give us a rundown of the restaurant’s layout and customer journey.
Located in a high-traffic retail center in upscale Aventura, Florida, the restaurant’s tall windows allowing sight to the colorful interior, compelling lighting and warm wood ceilings invite guests to enter. Outdoor breezeway seating with red umbrellas, market lights and swaying palm trees overhead add to the invitation and offers guests a relaxing spot with fresh air to dine throughout the year.
Upon entering, eyes are first drawn to bold, whimsical black and white chalkboard- style graphics that scale up the center of the left wall and extend overhead. The graphics artistically represent the diverse menu and regions the foods come from.
As the customer journey continues, guests are treated to a feast for the senses with bold colorful wall striping throughout, accents of warm wood tones, built in big screens showing international sporting events, international music videos and appetizing foods, and the sounds and aromas of Latino fare cooking.

As a result of the pandemic, for fast casual and quick-service restaurants, the hottest trend is drive-thru restaurants.

A menu and ordering bar is given spotlight with wood framing. Programmable digital menu boards transform from the menu to appetizing full size images of food and promotional brand messaging for an ever-changing focal point. Another highlight of the menu and ordering bar is display cases where guests can pick up traditional specialty items that are not available in local supermarkets, including drinks, desserts and even frozen foods to take home.
As the last stop along the journey before dining, a favorite point is the salsa bar where guests customize their meals with a variety of freshly made traditional dipping sauces, further diversifying their meals. A self-serve soft drink machine sits alongside the salsa bar for those wanting regular soda or water rather than one of the specialty items from the case. A tall, red backdrop and overhead feature creates a special focal point for the hub.
When it is time to sit down and eat, tall ceilings and windows allow guests to enjoy the feel of a great room gathering space filled with lots of natural light by day and views of the adjacent breezeway seating, lights and palm trees.
Aspects of the layout and circulation proved to be a challenge, because due to permitting already being complete, we could not change existing door locations. As with most quick-service restaurants we wanted a direct, fast route to the order counter, but the door placement opens to the dining room. The layout was planned to create optimal customer circulation with a path to the side of the dining area that is nearly direct to the menu and ordering bar.
Queueing, ordering and pick-up areas are each separated from the dining room with warm wood-tone divider walls that subtly guide customers and provide a sense of privacy to those dining. At the same time, the low height of the divider wall allows full sight lines throughout the restaurant at all times. The layout is as efficient as possible with the desired path and maximum seating capacity achieved.
Take us through your construction and design strategy.
api(+) traditionally follows a six-step design process, though it is flexible depending on our clients’ needs and preferred ways of working.
Is there a location that really shows how the brand interacts with the community and customers? One of your favorites?
This Aventura location is the first and only one thus far built with the new api(+) prototype, so of course we are partial to it.
Are you optimistic about how the marketplace has responded to the new PANNA prototype?
Absolutely. Yelp reviews boast compliments such as hidden gem, highly recommended, busy place. It has become a common place for family and friends to gather to watch international sporting events. We have heard that through the pandemic, with so many travel restrictions, locals enjoy treating themselves to authentic Latino foods without leaving their neighborhood.
What is your PANNA’s growth plan? What areas are you targeting?
Continued steady expansion throughout South Florida.

The restaurant environment celebrates the best parts of what makes PANNA a unique quick service dining experience, and prepares the Meneses to continue growing the chain.

What trends are you seeing?
As a result of the pandemic, for fast casual and quick-service restaurants, the hottest trend is drive-thru restaurants. We are seeing chains that have never had drive-thrus, such as Shake Shack, announcing plans to implement them. A report released this summer by consulting firm AlixPartners showed that 44% of consumers said drive-thrus are the most preferred method for ordering restaurant food. Takeout/carryout followed at 40%, with the next most popular being curbside pickup at 32%. Delivery methods are least preferred, according to the study.
What is the secret to creating a “must visit” restaurant environment in today’s competitive landscape?
There is no magic bullet, but a few keys are compelling value, shopper to brand connection, good food, good service, a great environment and authenticity. Much of PANNA’s success is thanks to these factors.
In terms of environments design, a conviction to point of view is another quality we see time and time again with the most successful brands. These successful brands know who they are and who their audience is. They know that their product is superior and unique, and that point of view is boldly expressed in all aspects of the environment.
What is today’s consumer looking for?
One thing that resonates with customers and keeps them coming back to our restaurant environment is a look into the food process. People like to know where their food comes from, how it is made and who makes it. The process is usually what makes a restaurant’s offering unique and desirable. Are you an Italian restaurant? Show your guest how you make the pasta. A brewery? Give a look at the grains and tanks.
What is the biggest item on your to-do list right now? Describe a typical day in your life.
I am hyper focused on the success of our firm, new business, and ensuring the continued quality of our work via great hires and staff development. Day to day this includes speaking with our clients about 2021 initiatives and pandemic-related design changes, working with our team on project strategy and deliverables, and interviewing new talent.
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Story by Michael J. Pallerino, editor of Commercial Construction & Renovation magazine. Over the past 30-plus years, he has won numerous awards, including the “Jesse H. Neal Editorial Achievement Award,” recognized as the Pulitzer Prize for business-to-business magazines. He can be reached at mikep@ccr-mag.com.