NEW HAVEN — A decades-long dream now is a reality for Saul and Maria Torres, and the couple is looking forward to hungry customers experiencing their Mexican-Italian offerings, food they say is “made with love.”
“Someday we’re going to have a restaurant, someday we’re going to have a food truck,” Maria Torres said. The Mexican immigrant family’s fantasy has come to life through the Alegría Café food truck, a new spot for breakfast and lunch downtown on Grove Street at the corner of Hillhouse Avenue.
While Maria Torres likes Mexican food, Saul Torres loves Italian cuisine — so they agreed on a fusion and separated the cooking duties. She brings her family-recipe tamales to the table, while Saul chimes in with his experience in Italian dishes from his work at Italian restaurants in the city.
“We have burritos, we have quesadillas, we have salads and we have paninis,” Maria Torres said. “Little by little we are going to extend the menu and learn from the business because we are new on everything.”
Just two years ago, they decided it was time to turn themselves from food workers to restaurateurs.
Maria Torres said the food truck actually was her husband’s idea but he was busy working, so she, who also worked as a caterer, took the lead. Saul Torres said in Spanish through his wife that he loves being in the kitchen and serving customers his food.
“We think we have the expertise in cooking,” Maria Torres said. “We want to improve on the experience and we want to see people eating our food that’s made with love.”
Saul Torres said since the process was complicated, the two divided duties: she would focus on the paperwork, and he would look at investment money.
“We are good partners,” Maria Torres said.
Maria Torres sought help from several food accelerator programs in the city — including Havenly, Collab and CitySeed — that helped her with the process and the legal aspects.
“I learned so many things. I thought making a business was easy, but it’s not,” she said. “(There were) so many problems and I’ve made my food certifications and all the licenses in the city. So yes, it’s long, but it’s good because we are sure our food is clean, our food is safe.”
Havenly is a nonprofit that helps refugee and immigrant women through job, education and training programs. CitySeed operates farmers markets in the city and provide access to food expertise. Collab is a local group that supports entrepreneurship.
For Maria Torres, the most difficult part of managing a restaurant business is to choose the right people for her team. But she said she’s glad people she chose from lawyer to accountant and her friends from the nonprofit groups have been helpful to her.
She said she is trying to create a team that shares “the same passion, or the same love for cooking.”
Caroline Tanbee Smith, co-founder of Collab, said the opening of the food truck excites her because Maria Torres’ story is inspiring, especially for other women who want to start their own business.
“Seeing her say this is a dream she had and then actually seeing it manifest on Grove Street, I’ve already seen how women entrepreneurs, especially, have said, ‘Hey, that means that I can do it, too,’ and see themselves in Maria’s story,” Smith said.
Smith, who already tried Maria’s cooking, said the burrito is her favorite, hoping area students would stop by at the food truck once the school year begins to support the local business.
“You can’t go wrong with a really delicious burrito,” she said. “I actually really love her quesadilla, too. It’s all good, but you can’t go wrong with beans and rice and veggies and meat.”
The food truck targets morning commuters as it opens Tuesday to Saturday from 7 a.m. to 3 p.m. Maria Torres said she hopes people who are out on a morning run can stop by for coffee, fruit or juice.
She also recommends the breakfast burritos in the morning, regular burritos and paninis in the afternoon and chilaquiles and tamales during weekends.
But when asked about her favorite menu item to cook, she answered without hesitation: her generations-old, family-recipe tamales.
“It means the history of my life, the history of my heritage,” Maria said.
chatwan.mongkol@hearstmediact.com