La Reina Boricua brings Puerto Rican food to Akron airport, community

Monica Berrios loves nothing more than sharing the delicious foods of her native Puerto Rico with others.

"My food is magical," she said last week as she cooked orders in the commercial kitchen at Wingfoot Church in Akron's Goodyear Heights, where she's become known for her empanadas and other dishes she's sold during the summer at Reservoir Park next door. "Every food that I do, I love. You have to love to cook to do food."

Monica and and her husband, Julio Berrios, co-owners of the Akron mom-and-pop business La Reina Boricua, have recently branched out to offer their authentic Puerto Rican dishes — including traditional empanadas, rice with pigeon peas and desserts — at the CAK Cafe at Akron-Canton Airport.

"We're thankful for the opportunity," Julio said late last month at the airport.

It's a new twist to the airport's concessions, where travelers who are coming and going now have a chance to experience a taste of Puerto Rico with the Berrioses' foods, which they cook out of their home in Akron's Summit Lake and at Wingfoot Church.

"We're excited because we're actually giving them the opportunity to get in front of folks who wouldn't otherwise know them," Spencer Shaw, executive vice president of United Concessions Group (UCG) that serves the airport, said of the Berrioses.

Airport President and CEO Ren Camacho said offering La Reina Boricua dishes at the airport showcases Northeast Ohio's diversity and gives passengers and employees the chance to explore new food.

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"We're so happy to be able to work with them," said Camacho, who grew up in New York with the native dishes of his parents, who are from Puerto Rico.

Monica, 38, prepares and delivers frozen empanadas to the airport. She taught UCG employees how to fry the pastry entrees, with filling choices at the airport that include chicken and cheese, ground beef, or steak and cheese. They can be ordered separately for $6.99 or with arroz con gandules — Puerto Rico's national dish featuring rice with pigeon peas — for $14.99.

"It's fantastic. It tastes just like it's from home," Camacho said of La Reina Boricua's food. "The nurturing and the care and the time to make the empanadas or make the rice with the pigeon peas, it's the ethnic dish of Puerto Rico, so it's those things that really hit home when you taste it and savor it."

After coaching from Monica on making her arroz con gandules recipe, UCG staff at the CAK Cafe prepare the side dish fresh for customers.

The Berrioses connected with airport and UCG officials after seeing Camacho do an interview about the airport's business catalyst program months ago on Channel 19's Telemundo Cleveland. The program provides opportunity to disadvantaged and minority-owned businesses by providing terminal space at a trial rate of $1 a month for six months to test products and services.

La Reina Boricua was in the second month of the six-month program in late October, Camacho said. Monica brings 120 empanadas in three varieties as well as cheesecake and bread pudding desserts ($6.99) in each airport delivery.

The goal, Camacho said, is to bring in entrepreneurs and help them make a name for themselves. By representing local businesses, the airport also is able to create first and last impressions of the region.

"That's the premise of the program, is really giving the disadvantaged, underrepresented groups that really don't have a say and that have delicious things to offer the opportunity to promote what they are and who they are," he said.

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Monica said the program offers her momentum growing a business in a new country.

"This is a special opportunity for me," she said, "because I'm Hispanic and it's hard."

Move to Akron

Monica and Julio, 54, who moved to Akron in 2016, started La Reina Boricua out of their home kitchen that year. When the pandemic hit, they began bringing their authentic Puerto Rican food to front-line medical workers at area hospitals and fed the homeless.

They met pastor John Ashley in summer 2021 while selling their Puerto Rican fare at Reservoir Park. He asked them to provide the food for a neighborhood outreach event the church was hosting and that led to the Berrioses using the church's commercial kitchen.

The couple works together, offering both pickup and personally delivering their native foods around Akron and beyond, between 9 a.m. to 5 p.m. Mondays through Saturdays. The menu for La Reina Boricua can be seen on Facebook, where customers can contact the business to place orders on the WhatsApp link at the top of the page or by calling or texting 330-592-3470.

Among their regular customers, the Berrioses deliver lunch to EMCOR Facilities Services on the Goodyear campus in Akron and to Allstate Insurance in Massillon.

Monica, who is from Puerto Rico, lived and worked in the restaurant industry for eight years in New Jersey, where she met Julio, before moving to Akron. Julio, born in New York, is of Puerto Rican heritage.

She has family from her mother's side as well as a grown son in Akron and Julio's also lives in Akron.

Monica has been cooking traditional dishes since she was 5, learning in Puerto Rico from her mother and grandmother. She has received cooking degrees in both Puerto Rico and New Jersey.

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Julio, who is an artist, created the logo for La Reina Boricua, which means Puerto Rican queen. His design features a crown, the Puerto Rican flag, a mortar and pestle, and native foods including avocado and plantains.

Cooking at church

On a recent Monday, Monica was cooking up a storm at Wingfoot Church, frying steak empanadas as well as chicken in her fryer and boiling pasteles — made with the Puerto Rican root vegetables yuca and purple malanga with pork, wrapped in plantain leaves.

She sells pasteles seasonally by the dozen for $35. Another current seasonal offering is coquito, a creamy, traditional holiday drink whose ingredients include coconut milk, coconut, condensed milk, evaporated milk, ice cream, rum and spirits.

Those who order from La Reina Boricua can choose from five empanada flavors, with additional ones being chicken stew and spicy ground beef, which includes hot sauce and banana peppers. Empanadas cost $5.

The regular ground beef empanada features a tomato sauce as well as sofrito — a blend of onions, peppers, cilantro, culantro and garlic — and a "sazon" seasoning blend that gives dishes an orange-red color. La Reina Boricua purchases most of its vegetables locally from Let's Grow Akron in Summit Lake.

The eatery also offers three varieties of breakfast empanadas, which may be added to the offerings at CAK Cafe in the future.

Other menu items that can be ordered include rice with pigeon peas with fried chicken, pork chops or pork pernil (slow-roasted pork) added, which cost $6 for a small serving and $12 for a large. Other specialty items are potato balls (papas rellenos), which are mashed potato croquettes stuffed with ground beef, onions, peppers, tomato sauce and seasonings ($5).

Among its desserts, La Reina Boricua offers single servings of bread pudding and cheesecake for $3.50, a mix of 12 pastries for $10 and tres leches cakes or cupcakes, made with white cake, condensed milk, evaporated milk, heavy cream, whipped cream and cinnamon.

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As the Berrioses see their business growing, they're happy to be getting the name La Reina Boricua out there more.

"Julio and I brought our ideas together as a dream come true" to own their own business, Monica said.

Arts and restaurant writer Kerry Clawson may be reached at 330-996-3527 or kclawson@thebeaconjournal.com.

This article originally appeared on Akron Beacon Journal: La Reina Boricua brings taste of Puerto Rico to Akron-Canton airport