Paisano Kosher Grill offers Argentine meats at an Israeli-style picnic site

A hot, smoky outdoor feast awaits meat lovers on a farm not far from the Seminole Hard Rock Hotel & Casino Hollywood.

Deep inside L’Chaim Farm — a kosher special event site in Dania Beach that’s also home to horses, chickens and scattered apartments —  a kosher Argentine food truck has opened, surrounded by picnic tables and a fire pit. A fired-up grill roasts thick beef cuts on an angled grate in the style known as “asado a la estaca.”

Paisano Kosher Grill offers classic Argentine meat cuts such as flank steak and skirt steak. But co-owner Saul Wildau, a native of Concordia, Argentina, said his inspiration also comes from the casual outdoor restaurants of Israel, which he visits every two or three years, that serve food that satisfies.

Wildau and his business partner, Shmuel Kiesel, knew the owner of L’Chaim Farm and learned he had a covered pavilion on his property that would make a good restaurant location, although it was not hooked up to electricity or water. The partners loved the space for its agricultural, open-air feel, an anomaly in heavily built-out South Florida, and decided to connect the site to the utilities.

“I had never been in the food industry, but I knew how to do ‘asado’ (barbecue),” said Wildau, 38, who was trained as a rabbi and fills in occasionally at local congregations. “We are cooking the food we like.”

The restaurant, open since January, is certified kosher by the Orthodox Rabbinical Board of Broward and Palm Beach Counties . That means a supervisor is on-site whenever the restaurant is open to ensure the staff follows kosher laws, which include an extensive list of meats that can be eaten and how they must be prepared.

Wildau said the meats he serves come from cows that mostly eat grass, which creates a taste that is “lighter and more natural.” He uses Argentine meats for dishes such as Vacio ($39.99) and Boneless Flanken A La Estaca ($69.99). Although these prices may seem high, he said these dishes are even more expensive in South Florida’s fancier kosher restaurants.

Argentines will recognize classic menu items such as the Milanesa sandwich (beef schnitzel on a baguette or ciabatta bread, $21.99) and the chicken version for $18.99.

There are also American meats on the menu, including hamburgers ($15.99), bison burgers ($28.99) and Wagyu burgers ($34.99).

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Wildau said he and his wife moved to South Florida to be near relatives after his wife was robbed on an Argentinian street six years ago when she was pregnant. They now have three children.

He said he was excited to get to know the large Argentine and Latin American Jewish communities in South Florida. But he said few of his compatriots have been patronizing the restaurant. He said most customers are either non-Jewish Latin Americans, Israelis or American Orthodox Jews.

A family from Hollywood ate at the restaurant on a recent night. Avi Rubin, 29, said it was his sixth visit, and he brought along his in-laws, who were visiting from Los Angeles.

“We wanted to take them somewhere different, somewhere that was more of an experience,” Rubin said. The family ordered Chivitos (ribeye steak sandwiches), a schnitzel sandwich and the Paisano salad, made of lettuce, tomato, green onions, corn, cucumber, avocado and ribeye beef strips.

“There is nothing like this in L.A.,” said Rubin’s father-in-law, Gary Rosen. “If they could export it, I think it would be really successful.”

Paisano Kosher Grill is at 5511 Woodland Lane, Dania Beach. Visit paisanokosher.com or call 561- 600-1456.