Padrino in Fort Thomas is opening for hot food carryout beginning Friday, said owner Hunter Thomas.
Hot food will be available from 3:30 p.m. to 7:30 p.m. on Fridays and Saturdays, Thomas said, but hours will continue to expand once the business gets more staff.
Thomas owns three other restaurants — two other Padrino locations and a restaurant called 20 Bricks.
“We pivoted instead of trying to build this restaurant out fully, we started selling take and bake pizzas,” he said. “We would make them at our other locations and then you would come in and pick them up.”
Customers could purchase salads and take home pastas and pizza, Thomas said.
The idea was to open up the Fort Thomas location to hot food carryout sooner, but Thomas said supply chain issues and the great resignation got in the way.
“It didn’t matter what we wanted to do, we just ended up scaling back our business a bit so I could staff up the brick and mortar restarants,” Thomas said. “So I moved people from the Fort Thomas location to better staff my other restaurants.”
In the coming months, Thomas expects to expand hours and work on building up the dining room side of the restaurant. Online ordering is also on the horizon.
But for now, “we are just excited to be able to cook hot food,” Thomas said, noting that take and bake items will still be available for sale.
Carryout will include all items that can currently be ordered at the other Padrino locations, Thomas said.
“It’s a long time coming,” Thomas said. “We are ready to go. Everyone is excited.”
