Hagerstown restaurateurs dish up Puerto Rican specialties

HAGERSTOWN, Md. (DC News Now) — In honor of Hispanic Heritage Month, DC News Now goes to western Maryland, where Jeovanni Diaz and his wife, Yahaira, are starting the second year of their popular Latin American dining destination.

The couple owes their success to a passion for success, hard work and a can-do attitude.

The couple had a dream to be Puerto Rican-themed restaurateurs, and they found that opportunity in Hagerstown.

Jeovanni is originally from El Salvador and has been in the Hagerstown area for 10 years. It was through real estate investments that he and Yahaira discovered a vacant downtown building they thought would be ideal for the restaurant they envisioned.

“We came here for a better life,” Jeovanni said. “Better opportunity. That’s how we see the United States.”

Their success was fueled by a passionate entrepreneurial spirit.

“There are not a lot of Hispanic businesses here,” Jeovanni said. “So we decided to come here and open something different.”

It was all about taking their concept to reality.

“We kept on dreaming about having a Puerto Rican restaurant here and finally we ended up buying the building and opening our dream restaurant,” Jeovanni said.

The pair chalks up their success to sheer grit and determination.

“We had to go through a lot of hoops; there are always challenges,” Jeovanni said. “But I am pretty sure we will overcome them and be successful.”

As for support from their Hispanic-American friends here?

“The Latin American community here 10 years ago was smaller,” Jeovanni said. “Obviously, now it has been getting bigger and bigger.”

Yahaira grew up in Puerto Rico and, at age 11, moved with her mom to Pennsylvania, where she eventually met and married Jeovanni. The couple started Sofrito as an offshoot of their real estate investments.

The Latin American community, from well beyond Hagerstown across the DMV, she says, “rallied to cheer them on.”

“We had a lot of people come from far away just to experience the Puerto Rican cuisine that we created here,” she said.

Yahaira said that the support has been gratifying.

“It has been fun to connect, reconnect with people from my culture,” Yahaira said. “It’s been very nice to be here in the area of Hagerstown.”

“Everybody sees the opportunity to come here and do better in life,” Jeovanni said.

He encourages other Latin American entrepreneurs to open businesses in western Maryland.