A fast-Latino food truck is putting down roots in Rocky Point, moving into the old Campus Hero spot at 660 Route 25a in the business district.
Owner and chef Iris Viera is bringing the family recipe for pupusas that she used to start her food truck to a permanent location calling her new take-out place Pupusas City.
Viera, who came to the United States from El Savador 14 years ago, was a cook at the now-closed Pentimento in Stony Brook before realizing her dream of opening her own restaurant.
Her food truck, Pupusas City Food Truck, specializes in pupusas, an El Savadorian flatbread sandwich, like a pancake made from rice flour stuffed with a protein, like chicken, cheese and vegetables.
Viera launched the food truck right before the pandemic hit, a fortuitous choice since her mobile restaurant idea was perfectly poised to take advantage of the take-out boom while most sit-down restaurants were on lockdown. With the success of her food truck, Viera, assisted by friends and family, decided last year to make Pupusas City into a brand.
Currently, they serve six different types of pupusas, all of which come from a family recipe that was passed all the way down the generations from Viera’s grandmother.
They picked Rocky Point for their first wheelless restaurant for a number of reasons. First it was hard to get the perfect spot that had a decent parking lot. At first they were looking for a location with a drive-through but choices were slim. They wanted a small place with a good parking lot for grab-and-go style service. (In Rocky Point they will not have seating as their permit won’t allow for it.)
The second reason is that Viera sees potential in Rocky Point, as businesses move in. Last year Greek Taste opened up on Broadway in the town, a similar type of quick take-out food service focusing on a specific ethnic food.
“It’s a good place,” she said of Rocky Point.
While Rocky Point is a good place to start, she does not expect it to end there.
Viera has plans to entice investors into her business so she can open her brand in other cities with her eye on Pennsylvania and Maryland. The idea is to have a permanent location and a food truck wherever she expands.
To that end, Pupusas City Food Truck will continue to roll around Long Island.
With the permit process finally coming to an end Viera is in talks with an architect and a builder to hopefully start construction in about three weeks. Viera then hopes to be open and serving her family recipe pupusas in Rocky Point by June or July.