Dining Latino: Restaurant Latino offers healthy, fresh comfort food

Two and a half years ago, husband-and-wife duo Bernardo Espinal and Rosa Elena Medrano opened the doors of Restaurant Latino, featuring a variety of foods inspired by traditional Dominican cuisine.

The restaurant’s offerings, described by Medrano as comfort food that is still healthy, include sancocho (a traditional stew containing chicken, beef, corn and other veggies), traditionally prepared pork, chicken, shrimp and other meats, beans, different types of rice, and plantains — all served a la carte.

The key to their business, and an ever-expanding clientele, the couple said, is attention to detail alongside passion for good food and service.

Restaurant Latino only serves food prepared the same day, said Medrano, and donates unsold food to a local senior center at the end of the day. Their motivation, Espinal said, is love, not money, and he enjoys being able to give back to the older generations.

Chef Espinal often gets inspired by new ingredients, though the couple carefully plans out any additions made to the menu. The day of LebTown’s visit, for instance, Espinal was out visiting a fish market to find ingredients for a stew (though he joined the interview via phone).

“It’s not our menu that’s growing, it’s our clientele, because they know what they have, they have what they like, and they come back for the same things,” said Julie Viera, translating Medrano from Spanish. “So there’s the base menu, and it really attracts people to come back, but he also finds himself inspired and adding small things; not changing the menu completely but having highlights.

Medrano, who typically works front-of house, likes to ensure every customer feels taken care of regardless of wealth, background, or dietary restrictions. To accommodate LebTown’s vegetarian reporter, for instance, Restaurant Latino provided a custom lunch of scrambled eggs mixed with veggies alongside plantains.

“It’s a lot like a family; a lot of the customers that come here are very much regulars, so they’re here all the time,” said Viera. “It feels like a family and they interact in a very familial way. … She just has very much a warm personality, so she says that she hasn’t encountered any type of personalities that she feels that she can’t handle, she can sort of interact with everybody.”

While in the Dominican Republic, Espinal worked in several restaurants, all the while dreaming of one day opening his own. He came across a listing for a storefront here in Lebanon, and with wife Medrano decided to move to the U.S. to start Restaurant Latino.

Espinal moved to Lebanon a month before Espinal, who followed with their four kids after they finished the school year. Since then, the pair have worked together to bring the dream to fruition and keep the restaurant thriving, with the kids helping out where they can.

“It’s a dream that he’s always had, and she supports his dream, and it’s almost like its her own dream now,” said Viera. “The extent in which she tries to keep him going sometimes, you know, when he’s tired.”

Monday through Saturday, Restaurant Latino at 42 S. 8th St. is open from 8 a.m. to 8 p.m., and they are open from 9 a.m. to 6 p.m. on Sundays. The restaurant tends to be the busiest at lunchtime and also offers takeout.