Bacoa Restaurant, Puerto Rico | RESY 2022

 

The hacienda’s open dining room where I’m currently sitting belongs to Bacoa.

Bacoa is restaurant in the town of Juncos, where owners, chefs and industry lifers Raúl Correa, René Marichal and Xavier Pacheco are cooking local ingredients over open wood fires. These names are not unknown in Puerto Rico and possibly not even to you; Pacheco can be seen side by side with the late Anthony Bourdain on Season 10 of “Parts Unknown: Life After Maria.” The hacienda was a shell that had been ruined by the devastating winds of Hurricane María. The former owner of the property offered Marichal a “rent to own” option and the trio brought it back to life. Bacoa sits on a 3.4-acre finca with a natural pond fed by a nearby stream.