Food stop Restuarante Usuluteco
El restuarante Usuluteco or the Usuluteco restaurant is a salvadorean based restaurant in the Sunset park region on Brooklyn. Established in the 1980’s, this restaurant’s name comes from a town in El Salvador dubbed Usulutan. During the 1980’s political disruption and wars drove a lot of the people out of Usulutan. Even now people are driven out due to violence and gang activity in the region. However inside the restaurant it is a whole different story.
The interior of the restaurant represents the beautiful side of El Salvador. Pictures of plants and trees and beaches, dim lights and flags covering the store from head to toe and a music floor so people can dance on. The atmosphere is quite lively with people laughing, eating and having a great time. The restaurant revolves around traditional Salvadorean foods such as pupusas, pollo a la plancha, cebada, and horchata. To place an order one must know Spanish, however English speaking waitresses are available. Typically restaurants like these are run by woman. And woman do everything from cooking, to cleaning however the delivery boy remains to be a man. In Salvadorean culture, the woman are the ones that provide the food to the family so in the same manner, that aspect was brought over and opened to start these restaurants.
During my visit there I noticed that a white couple came in and enjoyed the atmosphere as well as the food. Also while there I noticed that they had a mini bar section where people can come in and unwind in the back of the restaurant making it a divided restaurant between family area and bar area.
The restaurant caters to the latino side of Sunset Park, Brooklyn. It allows people from any Spanish or for that matter any nation to come in and try their foods. It is also a very convenient meeting place by allowing the very diverse Salvadorean community to come and conjoin in a place, which has some aspects to the land they left behind. The restaurant itself has a very strong bond to El Salvador. Mainly because it reminds people that El Salvador no matter what will be their homeland and the pupusas or the pollo or the arroz or whatever your fancying will remind you that your taste buds will go back to the native foods in El Salvador.
Finally being right in front of the bus stop allows business to boom especially on weekends. With its strong blue and white paint as well as the bright neon lights, any Salvadorean would spot those symbols a mile awhile and rush towards it. (It held very true in my case).
