Dionis Taveras (right) of Latin Quarter food truck, with brother Adam Taveras and sister Nadely Taveras
Ditching bread as the vessel for sandwiches, family-run food truck Latin Quarter reaches for plantains instead. Sliced lengthwise, the fiber-rich fruit is pressed and double fried, serving as the foundation for a collection of Latin-inspired offerings aboard the mobile venture. Helmed by brothers Dionis and Adam Taveras, the concept launched last year, celebrating fried plantains known as patacones, a staple food of the Caribbean coast of Colombia.
Richmond magazine: Tell us a bit about your background and how the truck got started.
Dionis Taveras: I’m originally from New York — Brooklyn. My parents moved us here in 2000. I went to VCU for two years, then went to Virginia Tech. After I graduated, my wife and I came home to Richmond. I started working at Chipotle, and it was the first job that sucked me into management. I was an area manager in Charlotte for seven years, had a baby, then moved back here four years ago. I got a job as a GM with Roots Natural Kitchen and got promoted to area manager, overseeing multiple locations. I started to think of a brick-and-mortar when the pandemic hit. Everyone had time to think about their lives; I just knew that if I didn’t try, I would regret it. My wife essentially convinced me and said, “Why not do a food truck?”
RM: Why did you decide to work with plantains, and what are some of the current menu items?
Taveras: I thought, “How can I introduce all these different cuisines of Latin America in a truck in a uniform way?” And that’s where plantains came into my thought process. There’s a lot of different sandwiches in Latin America; for me it’s taking some of that inspiration from other countries and creating sandwiches with the plantain bun that highlight them. I’m Dominican, and pernil, a slow-roasted pork shoulder, is a very traditional Puerto Rican and Dominican dish. Anyone who has ever had it loves it. I started with that and created a sandwich as an ode to the Dominican Republic, essentially. It’s called the El Mayimbe, which is a nickname for Antony Santos, a popular musician from the Dominican Republic. We play on Latin pop culture a lot, and those familiar with it will understand the different references on the menu. We have the El Chavo, named after one of the most popular sitcoms ever in Mexico, so it’s a Mexican-inspired sandwich with street corn and jalapeno ranch. All the sandwiches can also be made as bowls.
RM: What’s your connection to this food, and when did you learn to cook?
Taveras: The food, the meat and ingredients I’m very familiar with. I’ve been eating pernil since I’ve had teeth. [Laughs] It’s a very traditional dish that we typically only get at Thanksgiving and Christmas and baby showers. It was kind of a specialty for the longest time, and I finally asked my mom and dad to teach me how to make it. That got me interested in how to prepare other meats, and I started doing research on traditional meats in other countries. It took me down this tunnel of all these different flavors and ways of cooking I never thought of before.
RM: Who operates the truck, and where can people find you?
Taveras: Me and my brother are the owners, and then my dad and sister are hourly employees with us, all in the family for now. Hopefully we’re able to expand, and we still want to open a brick-and-mortar, that’s our end game. We’re out three to four days a week.
