Stowe diners may still miss Santos Cocina Latina, but yucca, plantains and spice will reappear in town next week when Café Latina opens in the space where Thompson’s Flour Shop used to be.

The breakfast-and-lunch spot is the brainchild of Karen Nielsen, who lived in Costa Rica for close to 20 years before returning to the States to raise her teenage daughter. There, Nielsen worked as a tropical biologist before seguing into the culinary life  — she ran three eateries in the Monteverde Cloud Forest area, a mountainous center she likens to a tropical version of the Green Mountains.

Nielsen calls the fare she served there Nuevo Latino, or modernized Latin-American food, and it’s resurrected on Café Latina’s menu. The breakfast lineup includes huevos rancheros, tortilla espanola, eggs Benedict layered with pork carnitas, omelettes with local goat cheese and chorizo, and breakfast burritos; a baked-goods case will offer a North-South mélange of savory muffins, coconut macaroons, croissants, fig-almond bread and gluten-free chocolate muffins — plus hearts of palm beignets. At lunchtime, the kitchen will churn out fish tacos, rice and beans, mojito shrimp, chimichangas, and smoked chicken quesadillas.

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Corin Hirsch was a Seven Days food writer 2011 through 2016. She was also a dining critic and drinks columnist at Newsday from 2017 to 2022, and contributes to The Guardian, Wine Enthusiast and other publications. She’s spoken often on colonial era...

One reply on “Latin-Influenced Food Returns to Stowe”

  1. Oh yum! Been looking for places serving Latin American food, so I’ll have to check this out. The breakfast and baked goods sound especially good.

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