A family originally from Ecuador has opened La Casa del Sabor in South Burlington at 1834 Shelburne Road, where Pauline’s Café operated for almost half a century, until its abrupt closure in 2024. Bryan Pineda, 22, told Seven Days that his mother, Marivel Arteaga, runs the kitchen, which serves lunch and dinner daily and breakfast on weekends. Their goal with dishes such as fried green plantain balls filled with cheese and chicken soup with cassava is to share “the flavors and traditions we grew up with,” Pineda said by text.
Opened in mid-March, La Casa del Sabor is the family’s first restaurant, Pineda said, though they have “many years of experience in preparing traditional Latin American cuisine — specifically Ecuadorian dishes.” Those include crispy potato pancakes called llapingacho, seasoned with annatto and cumin and often stuffed with cheese; and a stew of slow-cooked beef ribs with cassava, avocado and fried plantains called seco de costilla.
The Arteaga-Pineda family decided also to include Peruvian and Colombian dishes to bring familiar flavors to the area’s “diverse Latin community,” Pineda said. Weekend seafood specials will feature ingredients from Ecuador sourced through New York, “allowing us to prepare traditional coastal dishes that are very popular in our culture,” he noted.
La Casa del Sabor has a full bar with beer, wine and cocktails, such as margaritas.
Got something to say?
Send a letter to the editor and we'll publish your feedback in print!
