Growing up, Benoit Angulo, co-owner of Venezuelan restaurant La Cocinita, envisioned creating a gathering spot like the Spanish and Portuguese-style eateries in his home country of Venezuela, where people could watch soccer, eat, drink and spend the day together.
Now, 13 years after he and his now-wife Rachel Angulo opened their first food truck in New Orleans, this dream will be realized.
La Cocinita’s Evanston location will relocate to a larger space at 521 Davis St. and open Saturday. While La Concinita has provided Evanston residents with Venezuelan cuisine for nearly a decade, the larger size of their new location will finally allow them to have the gathering space they always dreamed of.
The Angulos met in New Orleans and opened their first food truck there in 2011. They moved to Evanston to be closer to Rachel Angulo’s family in 2014. In 2016, they opened La Cocinita in Evanston, which Rachel Angulo said she knew people would be receptive to.
“I feel like the [Evanston] community embraces diversity in all forms — including culinary diversity — and felt like Venezuelan cuisine would be a hit here,” she said.
The restaurant closed its location at 1625 Chicago Ave. roughly a month ago. Rachel Angulo said that the transition to Davis Street took longer than anticipated.
Downtown Evanston Executive Director Andy Vick said the move happened because a mid-rise building will take the restaurant’s place.
“That, I think, is a win-win,” Vick said. “It’s good for La Cocinita to have a new and larger space, and I’m also very excited about the development that’s going up on Chicago Avenue, as it’s going to bring more residents into downtown.”
The Angulos knew about the move in advance and found it difficult to balance investing in their new space while still operating at their preferred capacity.
Benoit Angulo said that they were stuck in a “limbo,” which limited their creative capacity in the kitchen.
Now that the restaurant is officially moving, the family is investing in design, rolling out new menu items and incorporating a bar into the space.
The expanded menu focuses on bringing more dietary-inclusive options to the restaurant. La Cocinita will have distinct vegetarian, vegan and gluten-free menus, Rachel Angulo said.
“We wanted to make it easy for people to enjoy more things,” she added.
While La Cocinita let its liquor license lapse during the pandemic, the Angulos said they are excited to bring back their bar program now that they have the space to accommodate it. They’ll have a variety of options at their bar, including margaritas, mojitos, a handful of tropical cocktails and mocktails.
Above all, the Angulos were most enthusiastic about their new space. They feel that this time around, they have taken the time to cultivate an inviting environment.
“I’m excited about the expansion, the new chapter of La Cocinita, so to speak,” Benoit Angulo said. “It’s like this new space that we’re going into where, after almost nine years in Evanston, we’re bigger and better.”
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