Francisco Rodriguez said he remembers eating empanadas and fried plantains while growing up in the Dominican Republic. Now, he is the owner of Las Delicias, a restaurant on Westcott Street where people can enjoy the same dishes on a daily basis.

After growing up in the Dominican Republic, Rodriguez moved to Puerto Rico. Las Delicias serves Dominican and Puerto Rican dishes, like the ones he had when he lived in these places.

One dish — mofongo — is a Puerto Rican dish made with fried pork and smashup plantains. The staples are mixed together in the “shape of the Carrier Dome,” said Yaralis Carrasquillo, who works at the family-owned business.

Carrasquillo, who is related to the owner’s sister, said in the month that he’s worked at Las Delicias where he thinks people come back not only for the food but also for how the staff interacts with their customers and each other. On any given day, bachata music will be blasting as servers are dancing and serving spoonful of rice and beans, said employee Rayauna Beverly.

Owner Francisco Rodriguez opened the original location of Las Delicias in 1998. Diana Riojas | Feature Editor

Chicken is sold for $3 by the piece. Carrasquillo said he liked the reasonable prices since he knows what it’s like to not come from the most affluent family. Other dishes include staples like empanadas, beans and rice, as well as a fried chicken dish, similar to chicken tenders, which Rodriguez said is popular among customers.

One reason why Carrasquillo thinks people come to Las Delicias is because it is one of the few restaurants in Syracuse that is Latino-run and -cooked. Despite a fairly sizeable Latinx population in the city — particularly in the Westside and Eastside — he said people within the community stick together.

“I feel very special, everybody loves the Spanish food and everybody comes to the restaurant for the vibes,” Carrasquillo said.

Beverly, a new hire said, since working there, her hardest learning curve is how to communicate with the customers since a portion of them may only speak Spanish. But despite the language barrier, she said she often catches herself laughing with customers and connecting.

She added that the food at Las Delicias is so authentic because the cooks are making the food they grew up eating.

“It’s in the body, it’s in the heart,” Beverly said, “they know how to cook the food.”

James Haywood Rolling Jr., director of diversity, equity and inclusion at Syracuse University’s College of Visual and Performing Arts, who has come to Las Delicias for years, said that growing up in Brooklyn, he was often surrounded by foods similar to the ones sold in the restaurant.

He said he and his wife often advocate for minority-owned places, and because Syracuse does have a diverse population, people deserve to have access to the food they grew up to.

Rodriguez said he’ll continue to cook and sell Dominican and Puerto Rican food. He said he likes living in Syracuse, even though he had no idea he would end up here.

“I’m happy here. I got my wife, I got my kids, you know,” he said.

Rodriguez isn’t the only one serving authentic food. In North Syracuse sits a Mexican restaurant where the chef cooks a taste of his hometown. 

Jesús Rivas, a worker at Camino Real Mexican Restaurant II, stands in front of a steaming plate of fajitas. Madison Brown | Contributing photographer

Roberto Lazaro said his love of cooking started back in Mexico when he watched his mom prepare dishes. As he got older, his mother encouraged him to start helping in the kitchen and he fell in love.

At Camino Real Mexican Restaurant II, he serves traditional Mexican food that he learned to cook in Acapulco, Mexico. When people sit at Camino Real, with its warm orange walls, flowers and dark wood chairs, they can be heard telling employees how much they love the place.

Roberto said that some customers come in the restaurant and say, “thank you, I love your food.” His wife and general manager, Katie, added that others ask to go to the back and meet the chefs.

“His love is in the kitchen,” Katie said about Roberto and the other chefs. “They make the food with love.”

The restaurant offers dishes like fajitas, tacos and chicken tamales. Katie said she loves working in restaurants and meeting new people and likes being able to encourage people to try new dishes. Tuesday’s special was pollo asado, a chicken breast with sautéed onion, smothered in cheese sauce with rice, beans and tortillas on the side.

There are few authentic Mexican restaurants in Syracuse.

Now running the business near Syracuse Hancock International Airport, the Lazaros are far from where they started, in South Carolina. Misael Rivas, owner of Cantina Real, offered them the opportunity to run the restaurant in 2018. Katie said that she has been working in restaurants since 2002, so she “jumped on (the opportunity) and went with it.”

“We’ve got a lot of Hispanic people come in too. We have a good thing going around here. We don’t plan on going anywhere,” Katie said.

Roberto and Katie said that they feel welcomed by the local Latinx community, with Katie adding that she loved meeting people who just flew in from the airport.

“You know, we love it, and I love it. It just makes my job that much more appreciative,” she said.

When Katie asked Roberto if he liked working with her, he only had one response.

“I love it.”

Published on September 19, 2019 at 1:07 am

Contact Mandy: [email protected] | @MandyKraynak