ABOUT · AFRO-PANAMANIAN CUISINE SINCE 2013 · BLACK-OWNED
Everything has a beginning. This is ours: Grandma Olga’s hands kneading hojaldras. From that kitchen came a cart, from the cart a stand, and from the stand, in 2013, La Tapa del Coco. Since then we have been asking the same question, without pause: what is Afro-Panamanian cuisine, and how far can it go?
01 — THE ORIGIN
WE GREW UP AMONG POTS
We are cousins. We grew up in our family’s restaurant, with grandparents who came from the Colombian Pacific and from the Antilles, Barbados and Jamaica, and a memory cooked for generations in Colón: the coconut, curry and ají chombo that came with Caribbean families, the stews and sweets of the Colón tradition, Grandma’s hojaldras.
In 2013 we opened La Tapa del Coco in San Francisco with an idea that sounded big at the time: that Afro-Panamanian cooking would move from the kitchens of the people to its place among the world’s cuisines. Twelve years later, that idea is a restaurant on Latin America’s 50 Best, a group of more than sixty people and a question that is still open.
We are a Black-owned, family-run neighborhood restaurant, and we say it with pride: for the diaspora traveling through Panama, this is your table.
02 — CHEF FOUNDER AND CEO
ISAAC VILLAVERDE
Chef, television cook and hospitality entrepreneur. He opened La Tapa del Coco in 2013 and today leads La Tapa Group, the Afro-Panamanian restaurant group born at this table. He hosts Copy Taste in prime time and De Masa Somos, the documentary on Panama’s hojaldra, and was the first Panamanian to cook in a World Central Kitchen operation, in Jamaica.
Co-founder of Turigastro and a board member of Promtur Panamá, he has spent years telling the story of Afro-Panamanian food abroad, from Washington to Morocco. His job is the why: where each dish comes from, who sustains it and why it matters.
ISAAC ON INSTAGRAM
03 — GROUP EXECUTIVE CHEF
ARMANDO J. BRAMWELL
Isaac’s cousin and the head of the kitchen. He trained in two of the best kitchens in the world, Disfrutar in Barcelona and Quintonil in Mexico City, and reached the Latin America regional final of the S.Pellegrino Young Chef Academy in 2021, all before 35.
In 2025, Food & Wine en Español named him among Central America’s Best New Chefs. His job is the how: home recipes, executed at the level of any kitchen in the world. Every November he defends his tamalito against guest chefs at Armando Tamalitos.
ARMANDO ON INSTAGRAM
04 — THE QUESTION GREW
AFRO PANA LAB AND LA TAPA GROUP
The question grew so much that we opened a lab to answer it. Afro Pana Lab researches, documents and shares Afro-Panamanian cooking: classes, private dinners, a studio where what we cook gets filmed. Together with the restaurant, La Tapa Catering and Come Coco Kitchen, it forms La Tapa Group, a group with a single purpose: to research, reimagine and share the richness of Afro-Panamanian culture, with a deep commitment to the development of our people and our community.
MEET LA TAPA GROUP
PURPOSE
To research, reimagine and share the richness of Afro-Panamanian culture.
VISION
To be the global reference for Afro-Panamanian culinary heritage.
WHAT DRIVES US
Creativity, discipline, excellence, resilience and synergy. Every table we serve sustains dignified jobs, trains cooks and opens doors for those who come after us.
05 — AWARDS AND PRESS
No. 61
Latin America’s 50 Best Restaurants 2025
READ THE STORY
Hot List
Condé Nast Traveler · Best New Restaurants in the World 2025
READ THE STORY
Top 26
Eater · The Best Restaurants in Panama City
READ THE STORY
Best New Chefs
Food & Wine en Español · Central America 2025 · Armando Bramwell
READ THE STORY
LA ESTRELLA DE PANAMÁ · 2025
Six Panamanian restaurants shine on Latin America’s 50 Best Restaurants 2025 (in Spanish)
PANAMÁ AMÉRICA · 2025
La Tapa del Coco ranks No. 61 among the 100 best restaurants in Latin America (in Spanish)
ATP · 2025
Panama celebrates six restaurants on Latin America’s 50 Best Restaurants 2025 (in Spanish)
EL SIGLO · 2025
Afro-Panamanian cuisine among the 100 best in Latin America (in Spanish)
COLOMBIA ONE · 2025
Afro-Panamanian Cuisine: Flavors That Define a Nation
REVISTA AUNO · 2025
Isaac Villaverde, first Panamanian to join a World Central Kitchen operation, in Jamaica (in Spanish)
REVISTA SUMMA · 2024
Panama: La Tapa del Coco among the 100 best restaurants in Latin America (in Spanish)
Press and interviews: comunicaciones@latapagroup.com