MEET EL COQUITO at ALLEN STREET “AUTHENTIC CARIBBEAN CUISINE”

At 242 Allen Street, Buffalo, NY 14201 you will find El Coquito, impeccable architecture, and the smiling face of founder Yamilex Sanchez.  

The new kid on the block, literally, “On Allen” is a lifestyle, a way to tell time, and a destination for locals. Located on a busy business heart valve of the traditionally diverse, vivacious, well-known, forward-moving, and food-centered neighborhood of, the West Side, El Coquito is the new worst-kept secret in Buffalo.  

 Yamilex is although, the perfect archetype of the entrepreneurial spirit that has long nourished our neighborhood for centuries, and the tenacious, internationally in-tune, and trend-setting spirit of the young and bright creators, “westside babies” as I like to call us, who make up the new regime. A woman of many passions, the first of which, is her children and motherhood, The second, is food and community building. A third is storytelling and community building. 

Food tells us stories about ourselves, that we don’t know. We know the flavor, the texture, and the smell, but sometimes we don’t know the story of our history. Like Yamliex’s Taina bone structure, Mofongo, a feature on the Coquito menu, gives heavy main character vibes. Mofongo can be accompanied by shrimp, chicken, or served alone. Your first bite is a crash course in Puerto Rican history. The lesson: Mofongo, like the island’s culture, is eclectic. Our beautiful West African ancestors were sold into slavery, and brought with them, fufu, a doughy food made soften. Fufu was then pounded with a mortar and pestle. Over time, Taino and Spanish flavors were stirred into fufu, and out came mofongo. After generations of perfecting, every cook has their own secret. 

A Buffalo girl by example, Yamilex’s story was one that could have been written differently.  Her life was touched by the ravages of the unjust and heavily one-sided criminal justice system; our nation continues to reform. The weight of Yamilex’s journey extends into the hearts of those unseen by ones. many, but very present in the minds of their loved ones from plantains, cassava, or yams that were boiled to.

A motivator, a unifier of stratified spaces and peoples, when I think of Yamilex I think of Cacique Yuiza “Loisa”. Predominately for one reason, Yamilex like Cacique Loisa, is recognized, and lifted by her own people. And the admiration of her own people, forever in time, is the highest compliment a woman can be given outside of motherhood. FYI Cacique is the indigenous word for leader amongst the Taino. 

Memorialized by the Spanish, much of Cacique Loiza’s story is unknown but we know two things: (1) she was the ONLY female cacique recorded in history; (2) she was loved and that love inspired pride of self in others. Yamilex Sanchez brings light to dark spaces. Her inner light is seen in the faces of the people who love her. I maintain that one of the greatest measures of a person, in today’s digital era, is the look on the faces of the people around them. Not the face of the subject of the photo frozen in time and perfectly poised, but the faces of those who inhabit their space willfully. 

 When you follow the Coquito Facebook page, and when you visit in person, you will see and experience a neighborhood, a street, a building space, and people made to be more hopeful and more fully alive by Yamilex. and her business. Yamilex, kindly has created a refuge for so many of us who crave the familiarness of our neighbors and flavors, sounds, and laughter of “home”, but remain thousands and thousands of miles away.