Siblings Honor Their Grandmothers Cooking By Opening Dominican Eatery In New Milford

NEW MILFORDS. Siblings Manny Rivera and Carolina Alvarez say their love of food began with their grandmother, Filonena Pérez, and her ability to bring people together through food.

Along with Alvarez's husband, Luis Alvarez, the brothers will pay homage to their grandmother's cooking and Dominican heritage by opening Filo's at 116 Danbury Road this spring.

“We always had a vision because our grandmother owned a restaurant in the Dominican Republic for a long time and that always inspired us,” said Carolina Alvarez, a New Milford resident.

Rivera said she, her sister and her husband bought the Staples Plaza space in January and plan to open it in June. The space is located on the site of the former Candlewood Brewery, a microbrewery that closed last summer after a short hiatus in New Milford.

Restaurant menus will include ginger chicken; "sanchoco" (stew of meat and vegetables); "chicharrón" (fried pork belly) with yellow rice and beans; and "churasco con mofongo" (grilled meat with a plate of cooked plantains). All dishes are according to Pérez's recipes.

Additionally, Rivera says the restaurant will offer breakfast sandwiches; pancakes with bacon, egg and cheese; and coffee from the Dominican Republic in the morning and a "mix of all things" for dinner.

Rivera said her 98-year-old grandmother immigrated to the United States in 1967 from the Dominican Republic. She said Perez dreamed of opening her own restaurant in the United States, but put her dream of taking care of her children, their five children, on the line. Pérez lives in Santo Domingo, the capital of the Dominican Republic.

Rivera, a Danbury resident, said she and Alvarez grew up in a large family and that her grandmother always took the family for special dinners on the weekends.

"It stayed in the kitchen," Rivera said of Perez. "One thing they like is that the family gets together, that they don't fight, and that they only love each other when food is served."

"Food is everything in our family," says Álvarez. “It's what brings us together, it's what we bring to parties, it's what we bring to birthdays, and it brings back memories of when I was a kid and my grandmother started cooking very early. At 3 or 4 in the morning the smell wakes you up."

Rivera says Pérez ginger fried chicken, fried yucca, and "churasco" (or carne asada) are some of her favorite dishes from her grandmother's cookbook.

Álvarez said that "sancocho" is one of his favorite dishes prepared by Pérez.

Rivera worked at AT&T in Danbury for about six years before deciding to follow his dream of opening a restaurant. She said she learned her customer service skills from her grandmother's humility and ability to show love to people through her cooking. She said her aunt, Lucie Duverge of New Milford, "was someone who loved food and touched" and that Duverge would work as a chef at the restaurant.

"One thing I've learned in life is that we only live once," says Rivera, "so if we only live once, let's make it count and one thing I always want to cross off my bucket list, is to make grandma proud." I will do everything in my power to make this dream come true for our family, for my grandmother."

Rivera said Pérez was blown away when he and Álvarez told him they were opening a restaurant named after his grandmother.

“He saw his dream come true when we told him we would make it happen and make him proud and make the restaurant a legacy,” Rivera said.