3 days ago
- Entertainment
- San Francisco Chronicle
This cuisine is rare in the Bay Area. A chef just opened a restaurant devoted to it
When Eric Rivera was in solitary confinement in the Santa Rita Jail in Dublin, food kept him sane.
He'd sit at a desk, alone, and pretend to be taking orders and cooking at a fantasy restaurant to pass the time. In his mind, he made the Puerto Rican dishes his mother taught him, and invented his own spins, like eggs benedict with slow-roasted pork.
Now, the chef, who ran a beloved Puerto Rican food business out of an Oakland liquor store until his arrest in 2017, has started that restaurant.
Puerto Rican Street Cuisine opened July 15 at 1430 23rd Ave. in Oakland with dishes including chicken encebollado and tostones, deep-fried plantains. Fans flocked to the takeout window, dancing to Puerto Rican music and hanging out on the sidewalk while they waited for their food. It sold out by the end of the day.
Rivera, a native of New York, is best known for Borinquen Soul, which was born as a food truck before gaining a loyal following from inside the Two Star Market liquor store until closing in 2017, and W.E.P.A. — a nod to a Puerto Rican term for 'right on' and an acronym for Where Everybody Parties At — in Jack London Square, which was featured in an episode of Guy Fieri's Food Network TV show 'Diners, Drive-ins, and Dives.' That same year, Rivera's rise came to an abrupt halt when he was arrested on a robbery he says he did not commit. He served nearly six years in jail, cooking for his fellow inmates and joining a hunger strike to protest poor food quality.
When Rivera returned home, friends encouraged him to start cooking again. The reception to popups was 'overwhelming,' he said.
Puerto Rican Street Cuisine serves staples such as pernil, empanadas filled with shredded chicken and rice topped with beans, squash and olives. Rivera said customers still ask for a dish highlighted on Diners, Drive-ins, and Dives': canoa, a maximalist, loaded fried plantain filled with ground beef, peppers, onion and cheese. He plans to offer daily specials, such as fried pork chops or mofongo (mashed plantains with pork). Expect future events in the Oakland space's backyard, which is equipped with a large smoker.
Puerto Rican cuisine remains underrepresented in the Bay Area. Puerto Rican Street Cuisine is now Oakland's only dedicated Puerto Rican restaurant, since the popular La Perla moved to Castro Valley last year. Two of the Bay Area's other Puerto Rican food businesses are run by Borinquen Soul alumni: Boriqua Kitchen, the region's only Puerto Rican food truck, and the vegan Casa Borinqueña, which operated in Oakland before moving to IKEA food hall Saluhall in San Francisco.
Rivera hopes his current employees will launch the next wave of Puerto Rican restaurants. He also plans to teach cooking classes to local youth and says he's in talks to sell frozen foods in grocery stores. The East Oakland space will serve as a central hub, he envisions, for training cooks and opening takeout-only locations of Puerto Rican Street Cuisine throughout the Bay Area.
Puerto Rican Street Cuisine is open for takeout and delivery from 3 to 10 p.m. Tuesday through Sunday.
