James Beard Winner Douglas Rodriguez Takes Over the Kitchen at Exilio
Chef Douglas Rodriguez
By Jeff Gremillion
Exilio Latin Flair has handed the kitchen to one of the chefs who helped invent Nuevo Latino cuisine.
James Beard Award winner Douglas Rodriguez is the new executive chef at the Harlow District restaurant, and his first move was a full reboot of the lunch and dinner menus, which debuted Tuesday, Sept. 8.
Rodriguez is widely credited with shaping Nuevo Latino cooking in the United States, taking the flavors and traditions of Latin America and presenting them through a contemporary lens. “Chef Douglas Rodriguez has an extraordinary ability to honor the traditions of Latin American cooking while presenting them in a fresh and exciting way,” said Pedro Teyuca, co-owner and operator of Bari Hospitality Group. “His creativity, experience and deep understanding of these cultures make him the ideal chef to guide Exilio into its next chapter.”
Rodriguez’s résumé includes Alma de Cuba in Philadelphia and De Rodriguez Cuba at the Hilton Bentley in Miami Beach, which became Miami’s first Latin restaurant to earn the AAA Four Diamond designation. More recently, he developed Nikos in Durham, N.C., which earned a recommendation in the 2025 Michelin Guide. He won the James Beard Foundation’s Rising Star Chef of the Year Award in 1996, later received a Lifetime Achievement Award from the Flavors of Passion Awards and competed on the inaugural season of Bravo’s Top Chef Masters.
At Exilio, he is drawing from the Caribbean, Central and South America, Mexico and Spain, with dishes that lean into indigenous ingredients and regional technique. The new menu includes tuna watermelon ceviche, salmon amarillo, mixto seafood leche de tigre, braised short rib flautas, Colombian-style chicken empanadas and a Cuban sandwich on a stick. Entrées run from chicken mole and snapper Veracruz to Argentine churrasco-cut filet mignon and malanga ricotta gnocchi.
Exilio, part of Bari Hospitality Group with Bari Ristorante and Georgia James, is at 2817 W. Dallas St., Building C. Reservations are at exiliolatinflair.com.
A dessert is garnished fancifully with crisp rounds of taro, or “malanga,” root.