Rehoboth and Milton’s Modern Mixture of taste and talent

Some men react to their midlife crises by buying red Corvettes. Others freak out and get hair plugs or liposuction. Me? I opened restaurants. Though my (ad)ventures were largely successful, I still shudder when I think of how many red Corvettes I could have bought instead. In hindsight, I probably should have gone with the lipo….

Restauranting is one of the most relentless businesses you can get yourself into. But to some, it just comes naturally. One of those people is local resident and restaurateur Leonardo Cabrera. Leo’s family moved to Delaware from Mexico City when he was very young. He earned his associate’s degree in biotechnology from Delaware Tech and completed an internship in marine studies. Though English is his second language (you’d never know it), young Leo excelled in chemistry and molecular biology - so much so that he earned his bachelor’s degree in cellular/molecular biology from Salisbury University and eventually his master’s in applied biology.

Leo loved to cook food as much as he loved to eat it. As his cooking skills expanded, so did his waistline. When he topped 250 pounds, his knowledge of body chemistry gave him surefire ways to deal with his ever-widening shadow. He took fitness classes, applying his scientific disposition to exercise and healthy eating. It worked, and he went ahead to earn his teaching certification in several popular exercise disciplines, including the well-known RPM cycling program.

Leo ended up as a server at an upscale tapas bar in Washington, D.C.’s Chinatown. That’s where he met Gladys Fernandez, now the proprietor of Cilantro restaurant on Rehoboth Avenue. Though discussions regarding a partnership in Cilantro never came to fruition, Leo continued to hone his food-service skills at Crystal, La Tonalteca, the old Cloud 9 (now Lula Brazil) and the long-gone Lamp Post restaurant (now Crabby Dick’s). While in school, he had worked for his good friend Yolanda Pineda at Mariachi restaurant on Wilmington Avenue, at the same time learning that most jobs for which he was degree-qualified involved research. “Research wasn’t for me,” Leo says. “I’m an ‘all over the place’ kind of guy, and most of my friends were in the restaurant business.” He confided to Yolanda that he needed to go out on his own, and on a cold mid-December day he walked into 62A Rehoboth Ave. He saw the cooking equipment and the big stainless steel hood. “I knew the place was mine,” he said.

Leo grew the tiny, lime-green Modern Mixture into a go-to spot for healthy and not-quite-so-healthy eaters alike. The menu says it all, with endless salads (some with crunchy nopalitos), overstuffed burritos, flautas, quesadillas, house-made tamales, delicious cocktails and Cuban sandwiches. At present, he is pleased to have partnered with Maggie Flores at the newly remodeled Rehoboth location. Maggie brings lots of expertise to the table, including her years working for La Tonalteca.

About a year-and-a-half ago I received an email from an entrepreneur asking my opinion about opening a restaurant in Milton. I told her about some of the successes there, and never heard from her again - until I walked into Modern Mixture Too at the corner of Federal and Front streets. And behind the bar was Leo’s new business partner, Stephanie Boright. She held out her hand with a big smile and said, “Hi! Remember me?” Not only had she involved herself in a Milton restaurant, but she bought the building! Both Leo and Stephanie are hands-on owners, and you can tell from the food and the service.

Modern Mixture Too has become a popular destination in Milton, and the Rehoboth Beach eatery is now open seven days for breakfast, lunch and dinner.

You can see how it would take a master’s-level molecular biologist, a certified exercise instructor and a seasoned restaurant maven to come up with a menu that promises to keep everybody happy with everything from vegan tamales to fried mac and cheese. Leo, Stephanie and Maggie’s thoroughly Modern Mixture restaurants deliver on that promise.

In last week’s column I wrote that the James Beard Awards would be presented in New York City. In fact, the awards ceremony will be at the Lyric Opera House in Chicago Monday, May 4. My excuse: There was a lot of wine served last week at the SoDel Concepts/James Beard dinner in New York.