La Cocinita

"Long-loved New Orleans food truck La Cocinita has finally made the leap to full-blown restaurant, bringing a sunny Venezuelan cafe with a vintage flair and arepas, empanadas, tacos, and churros to Uptown at 4920 Prytania Street. The restaurant greatly expands on the 14-year-old food truck’s menu, with particular care put into the vegan and vegetarian options, Rachel Angulo tells Eater. She and her husband Benoit Angulo founded La Cocinita (“Little Kitchen”) food truck after meeting while working at Commander’s Palace, inspired by the late-night areperas in Benoit’s native Caracas, Venezuela (located primarily on Calle de Hambre, “Hunger Street”). There are more varieties of arepas, building on their bestseller El Pabellon, the arepa form of the Venezuelan national dish (brisket, sweet plantains, queso fresco, black beans, and crema). There’s one with grilled chicken, chihuahua cheese, roasted carrot, and cotija (La Sifrina); a fried arepa with carne asada, guasacaca, and grilled queso fresco (La Llanera); a pulled pork arepa (El Puerco); a classic Venezuelan avocado chicken salad arepa (La Reina Pepiada); and an arepa with shrimp sofrito. There are four vegetarian options, two of which are vegan (and the other two can be easily made vegan), featuring black beans and sweet plantains; portobello mushrooms marinated like the carne asada; roasted cauliflower and carrot sofrito; and seared tofu and avocado salad that Angulo says expertly mimics the Reina Pepiada. Angulo says she’s “excited to be able to accommodate our gluten-free friends,” because the kitchen has two fryers — with the food truck, even though the masa used for the arepas and empanadas is gluten-free, the fryer oil was also used for the churros; here they can be made separate from the churros. As for empanadas, there are seven varieties, three of which are vegan. There’s a pataconcito, or mini fried plantain sandwich, on the sampler, and tacos that come three to an order. A build-your-own-bowl option offers a wealth of choices for the base, meat, sauces, and extras like roasted veggies, maduros, yuca fries, and fried eggs. The only menu items that aren’t gluten-free are the flour tortillas, dulce de leche bread pudding, and churros. Horchata ice cream is also on the dessert menu, made specially for La Cocinita by Creole Creamery next door. “I figured it might take a few tries to get where it needed to be, but they got it right on the first try,” says Angulo. The space is a triumph for the Angulos, representing how far they’ve come since their first food truck. Cicada designed the space and Also Known As, which has handled branding for spots like Flour Moon Bagels and Birdy’s, created a custom wallpaper incorporating imagery of the masa La Cocinita uses (Harina P.A.N.), a photograph taken of a food truck customer back in 2013, Venezuelan soccer players, and more. “It was a little difficult for me to let go of what La Cocinita branding was at first, but they’ve given it a vintage vibe that is so fitting for where we are now,” says Angulo. “I’m so glad I let them figure out how it should evolve,” she says. For now, La Cocinita is serving lunch and dinner daily from 11 a.m. to 9 p.m. The liquor license just came through, which means tequila and rum drinks, South American wines, and Mexican beers are on their way. Brunch is soon to follow." - Clair Lorell