If your taste buds are looking to travel to Puerto Rico and back for a delicious meal, look no further than The Blessed Cafe Latin Flavor.
Want a true taste of Puerto Rico? Located in The Arcade, The Blessed Cafe is the latest Caribbean restaurant to open in Northeast Ohio. Serving up the finest Puerto Rican dishes with a menu that rotates on a daily basis, The Blessed Cafe is known for its delicious food and flavors—especially its tembleque and tres leches desserts, which are both made from scratch.
Owner and chef Denise Santiago came to Cleveland from Puerto Rico 10 years ago and always dreamed of opening her own restaurant. While living in Puerto Rico, the path for Denise’s career in food began as a waitress, then head waitress, and then as a cafe owner.
“My previous boss where I waitressed always told us that he never wanted us to be with him too long,” said Denise. “He wanted me to have my own place someday and set goals for opening up a cafe myself, so that’s what I did with another waitress that I worked with.”
With her three kids, Denise moved to Cleveland in 2011. Some years later, she started working in an office building downtown and developed a close relationship with the owner of the office’s cafe, which served only the employees of the building.
“She [the owner] was looking to retire but didn’t want to give the cafe to just anybody. She wanted someone to put the same love into the cafe,” said Denise. “When I told my husband about this, he said ‘Take it! Take it!’ and the first Blessed Cafe was born.”
The original Blessed Cafe opened in 2018 and served just the office building’s employees. After great success and plenty of positive feedback on the food, Denise knew she had to expand her operations so she could “give our flavors to the rest of Cleveland.”
Lo and behold, The Arcade was advertising a vacancy, and Denise immediately fell in love with the space and its location, which she says “feels like it’s inside of a cruise ship!” She signed the contract for the restaurant space in December of 2019, planning to open to the public in April of 2020. Of course, COVID-19 made for a change of plan.
“At the same time, the original Blessed Cafe shut down because everyone at the office building was sent home,” said Denise. “It was a really hard year.”
Luckily, Denise was able to open The Blessed Cafe in Cleveland’s Old Arcade on February 8, 2021. Even though there may not be the same lunchtime foot traffic as before, she is hopeful that more people will start returning to work in-person and business will pick up speed. Currently, the cafe is open Monday through Friday from 10 to 6 PM.
“We put a lot of work into the decoration of the place and how it looks,” said Denise. “We really wanted to make it look like Puerto Rico. We wanted to bring the island here so that anyone who wanted to experience it in Cleveland could have it by just coming to our cafe.”
As soon as you walk inside The Blessed Cafe, you’ll feel transported to Old San Juan’s famous Fortaleza Street—a beautiful street that is canopied by colorful umbrellas. Just like the original, Denise has decorated the restaurant with umbrellas on the ceiling to pay homage to Old San Juan.
So, what does Denise recommend trying on the menu at her flavor-rich cafe?
“I tend to have two kinds of rice and three meats (usually beef, chicken, or pork) in different styles everyday. I love my roasted chicken. Also, my beef stew just melts in the mouth. And then I personally love my potato salad,” said Denise. “It’s all what my mother used to cook for me! There’s not a big science to it. The food is just like coming home to Mom's or Grandma’s house up in the hills of Puerto Rico and eating what’s on the dinner table.”