Authenticity and Community: A Perfect Recipe Fueling Montgomery County’s Latino Restaurant Scene
- La Voz Latina
- 5 days ago
- 2 min read
Written by: Danny Chung-A-Fung 🇺🇸🇬🇾
The Latino restaurant scene in Montgomery County continues to be a hotspot for foodies, said Mauricio Vásquez, the Executive Director of the Hispanic Chamber of Commerce Montgomery County.
Latinos are currently the largest minority in Montgomery County, making up about 21% of the county’s total population. Vásquez shared that said that what sets a Latino restaurant apart from other cuisines is the authenticity of its food.
“You're still offering traditional authentic food in a traditional environment, the decorations, the service, the way that plates are being served, the flavor of the meat, the rice, the beans,” Vásquez said.
“It's the way it's cooked, the ingredients that are being used, the way in which they're being prepared … anything that you're eating continues to be authentic.”
Jessica Rodriguez is the owner of Cuba De Ayer, a Cuban restaurant in Burtonsville, Maryland. As a lifelong Montgomery County resident, Rodriguez said it was hard to find Cuban food in the area, and she wanted to change that.
“I told my husband … ‘You know, why can't we just go down the street and get Cuban food? I want to open up a Cuban restaurant,’ ” Rodriguez said. “And we did.”
Rodriguez emphasized how authenticity has been a pillar of Cuba De Ayer since it first opened 20 years ago, keeping home-made recipes at the heart of its kitchen, and decor brought directly from Cuba.
“One of the things we really wanted to do was do authentic Cuban cuisine,” she said.
“We keep everything just very traditional.”
Rodriguez explained how she keeps the Cuban tradition alive at Cuba De Ayer, starting from the second you walk in.
“We wanted it to feel … lively because Cuba is known for their dancing, for their spirit, for their liveliness,” she said.
Unfortunately, authenticity by itself is not enough for a restaurant to survive.
Vásquez said that due to the effects of the COVID-19 pandemic, some local Latino restaurants were unable to sustain their normal operations.
However, Rodriguez said that one of the major reasons Cuba De Ayer was able to successfully remain in business during the pandemic was because of the support of the local community.
“We’ve been so blessed,” Rodriguez said. “Our neighborhood made sure we stayed afloat during COVID. They wanted to make sure that we wouldn't go anywhere.”
This may be in part why Rodriguez considers interacting with her customers to be her favorite part of the job.
“I love my customers,” Rodriguez said. “That's definitely by far my favorite part.”
Vásquez echoed Rodriguez’s praise of Montgomery County’s openness to diversity, particularly toward the Latino community.
“This county has been very supportive of the diversity that lives in here,” Vásquez said. “They've been very vocal and explicit in saying all communities are welcome.”
And Vásquez said the resilience of the local community will continue to play a vital role in the industry going forward.
“Eventually the hospitality landscape will look slightly different than it does right now, but the community will be there and we will continue to enjoy the good things that they bring to the table,” said Vásquez.