AUSTIN, Texas — A food truck in South Austin is transporting Central Texans to the island of Puerto Rico through its authentic dishes.
Located inside the Thicket South Austin Food Park on South First Street sits Plantain Bar, a Puerto Rican fusion food truck owner by husband and wife Lenny Hernandez Aparcero and Jojo Koster.
"So I'm being Puerto Rican and Venezuelan and my wife Peruvian, we have all of those countries ingredients in our food," Hernandez Aparcero said.
The couple said they came up with the idea of the truck how many great decisions are first made.
"We had a couple of drinks, you know, that leads to it. And we bought a bunch of equipment to do pop-ups with three tables, a tabletop fryer and, yeah, just started having I think it was about four or five pop ups," Hernandez Aparcero said.
They hit the ground running, and the pop-ups eventually led to something more full-time: buying a food truck.
"We took all of our savings, and we put the down payment for the for the trailer. And from there, it's just been so much fun," Hernandez Aparcero said.
Hernandez Aparcero originally went to school for computer science and was working at a restaurant. The co-owner said he fell in love with the restaurant industry and wanted to purse that career path instead. So when he moved to Texas in 2021 after living in Colorado, he knew he wanted to bring his culture along with him.
Plantain Bar serves up a variety of dishes that can be ordered online, from Cuban sandwiches to tostones and patacones, both fried green plantains.
"I grew up eating a lot of Puerto Rican food and Venezuelan food. So we try to have like a base of what we're used to, you know, we use a lot of Peruvian spicy peppers in our in our food. We try to kind of mix everything together," Hernandez Aparcero said.
Plantains are a staple in the Puerto Rican diet. They can be made as sweet or savory, and that variety sparked the name for the truck.
"The greens are saltier and, of course, just the black and yellow ones are sweeter. So we figured, you know, let's play off of that. How do you want your plantain? How do you like your plantain? Do you like it better salty, you like it sweet? So we figured, you know, Plantain Bar, a little something for everyone," Hernandez Aparcero said.
When looking around Central Texas, the couple said they didn’t find many food options that fused together different Latin cultures. Their solution to fix that has resulted in customers grateful for a little taste of home.
The couple said a lot of customers haven't had the type of food they serve in so long, and it reminds them of their families home cooking.
"They always say, 'Oh, my mom, my mom,' you know, or 'home.' I love that. They're like, 'Oh, this feel like home, but different,'" Koster said.
In 2019, Koster was diagnosed with Celiac disease, an autoimmune disease where the ingestion of gluten leads to damage in the small intestine. Due to that, all the dishes served at the couple's truck are 100% gluten-free and they also offer vegan and vegetarian options.
"When we started it was like, 'Oh, you are Latino, you have tacos. All the Latinos have tacos.' I've never eaten a taco before in my life. I told them like, 'No, from my culture is more like potatoes and rice,'" Koster said.
The couple said they hope introducing Puerto Rican and Venezuelan culture to Austin broadens everyone's minds of what Spanish food can be – versatile and pushing the boundaries .
"It's a lot of hard work but, you know, life isn't easy and all the good things in life are hard. You got to work for it, you know?" Hernandez Aparcero said. "Once you get to a point where you're working every day and you're doing it and people are loving it, that's when it pays off."
The pair said they will continue to pay their heritage forward and make room for those inspired to follow in their footsteps – or maybe tire tracks.