Restaurants tout their dining experience to be like a family dinner, but none is as close to that as it is at Regina’s Farm.
Located at off of Broward Boulevard, guests are literally invited to the cook’s home to dine with 100 others in her family’s backyard for authentic Brazilian fare.
I had seen people post on Instagram and Facebook about the experience, and I was excited to try it for myself when my friend Natalya invited me to join her and two friends when she claimed four spots at the reservations-only spot. We parked for free next to the house, and upon walking through the fence surrounding the Katia family’s home, I felt like I was transported to a quieter place far from Fort Lauderdale.
Kids were chasing after chickens and admiring the roosters as they puffed their chests as their parents sat at picnic tables, and some little ones sat inside a wooden cart to be towed around the yard by a tractor. I met Natalya’s friends, who brought a bottle of red wine, and snacked on hearty chicken soup with fragrant herbs cooked over a hearth.
Regina has been feeding people since 2006 and began her backyard cooking venture formally in 2013. On select Saturdays, guests are invited to her home with her family for authentic Brazilian food, fit with wandering chickens, a tractor pulling a little cart for the kids, and swings. As you enter, the cook is finalizing her dishes under a pavilion with brick stoves, including her famous cheese bread, or pão de queijo. Guests wander the yard, checking out the mini farm smack dab in the middle of Fort Lauderdale.
Soon, Regina announces that dinner is ready and lifts the lids from pots and pans crowding the pavilion, and a crowd eagerly grabs plates and bowls as they wait their turn to indulge in dozens of hearty plates of polenta, chicken, beef, rice, vegetables, and more soup. For this city girl, it was an exciting and unique way to try Brazilian food. As the group sat together at our picnic table, oohing and aahing over how tender the meats were, rain drops threatened overhead until it finally turned into a downpour.
But no fear, Regina’s husband ushered us all inside their house — we sat in their family room to wait out the storm! Once the weather cleared up (since it’s South Florida, it took all of 20 minutes), Regina started taking out desserts from her kitchen to serve under the pavilion. Here, I took samples of cakes, flan, cookies, and candies similar to squares of dulce de leche.
All this for $25 , which benefits the Las Olas Worship Center and other organizations close to the family’s heart.
IF YOU GO:
- Want a glass of wine to go with your meal? It’s BYOB, so pick up your favorite wine and bring it to dinner. It’s the only alcohol allowed.
- Remember, it’s outside, so during the summer months it’d be a good idea to bring some bug spray.
- Dinner is paid with cash only