A hard-to-find Central American cuisine finds a stylish home in Kensington

It is true that you can find a cheesesteak joint or an Italian restaurant in pretty much every pocket of the city, but Philly’s current restaurant scene contains multitudes, from the sambal-laced Sulawesi noodle dishes at Indospice to the berbere-spiced Ethiopian fried chicken at Doro Bet and the cheesy syrniki pancakes at Vanilla Cafe (one of the Northeast’s Slavic specialists).

Still, some cuisines are more elusive than others. Take Nicaraguan food. Philly proper claims perhaps as few as two distinctly Nicaraguan restaurants (Italian Market’s Duskaia Cafe and Rinconcito Nicaragua La Mamita Francis at 10th and Tasker). Camden has another in Sabor Nica Latin.

This makes Pinolero, a new restaurant serving Nicaraguan specialties — including salty bricks of Chontales cheese grilled over a wood fire, fresh corn güirilas griddled between banana leaves, chilled cups of fresco de cacao spiked with cinnamon and cloves, and smoky res (steak) asada served with gallo pinto (rice and beans) and crunchy tajadas (plantain chips) — all the more welcome.

Pinolero opened last month in Kensington’s Harrowgate section, at the corner of Tioga and J streets, a block up from neighborhood coffee-shop darling Càphê Roasters. It’s the realization of a long-held dream for Nicaraguan chef-owner Lilliam Orozco, who has the full backing of her kids, 26-year-old Sarah and 10-year-old Sebastian — both of whom you might find behind the counter of the 42-seat restaurant, helping customers and serving Nicaraguan coffee and espresso.

As for Orozco, she’ll be in the kitchen, working a custom-made wood-fired grill and a plancha, cranking out salty-sweet empanadas de maduro, tangy beef-topped enchiladitas Boaqueña, and savory nacatamal — a pork-, rice-, and potato-stuffed tamal steamed in a banana leaf.

A native of the mountainous city of Boaco, Orozco came to Philadelphia 25 years ago and waited tables for 14 years at a now-closed Portuguese restaurant near 5th and Wyoming before exploring opening a place of her own. Growing up, she spent time in Boaco’s surrounding countryside, where her extended family harvests, processes, and roasts the very coffee that Pinolero serves. (Pinolero is a nickname for a person from Nicaragua.)

Orozco’s aunt taught her how to cook many of the dishes that appear on the menu, including chancho con yuca (pork marinated with cumin, achiote, and vinegar, served alongside steamed yuca), as well as enchiladas and tacos that bear little resemblance to their Mexican counterparts— encased in large, cushiony tortillas, then panfried in a pool of oil till they’re crispy.

“Our mission was to show off our culture in our food,” Orozco said, with Sarah translating.

For years, Orozco said, if she wanted to eat Nicaraguan food in a restaurant in the U.S., she’d have to travel to Florida, which has the highest concentration of Pinoleros in the U.S. Pinolero fills a need, serving up long-missed food from home for Philadelphia’s Nicaraguan population, which numbers just over 3,400 according to the most recent U.S. census figures. (In the scheme of Philly’s Central American demographics, that’s about half the number of Guatemalans and slightly more than the Salvadoran population. Both these groups are better represented in the area’s restaurant scene.)

“We have a lot of people who’ve not gone back to my country in so many years, and when the people come here and they see the food, like the baho and the chancho con yuca, they’re so, so excited,” Orozco said. One customer told Orozco it had been 35 years since the last time she had eaten baho, or brisket marinated with bitter orange juice, tomatoes, and garlic, then steamed in a banana leaf along with green and ripe plantains and yuca. “I remember my country,” the customer told Orozco after eating.

Orozco insists on using Nicaraguan ingredients when possible, importing red beans for her gallo pinto and raw cacao beans for the fresca de cacao. The mesmerizingly salty, halloumi-like cheese from the coastal Chontales region is shipped up from Florida; Orozco cooks it two ways — either panfried or cooked over the oak-fired grill until it’s charred and fragrant.

Before Orozco took over the lease, this bright corner space at 1100 E. Tioga St. was home to a beer distributor. Orozco spent the last two and a half years renovating, building out a large, immaculate kitchen and a gorgeous green-and-white tinted dining room that is bathed in sunlight during the day. Orozco’s daughter, Sarah, is an interior designer and helped lay out the building’s footprint. In fact, Sarah gets credit for discovering the space: She was working on a new apartment building across J Street when the developer suggested a restaurant would be a perfect fit next door. Sarah told her mother; when Orozco saw the place, she was sold.

“My mom was like, ‘I love it,’” Sarah said. “It’s a perfect place because it’s welcoming, but it kind of takes away that image [some people] have of Kensington, like ‘Oh, Kensington is bad, it’s not nice’ — but it is.”

That pride of place translates to Nicaragua, too, which is captured in a large, colorful Primitivista-style painting that anchors the dining room. It depicts five volcanoes (representing five of Central America’s seven countries), Granada’s famous yellow cathedral, workers harvesting vegetables and coffee, and other rural scenes in vivid detail. It’s the perfect backdrop for a hearty meal that transports you to a tropical clime, especially when paired with a glass of passionfruit or dragon fruit juice and finished off with an order of buñuelos (syrup-slicked fritters made with yuca and cheese). For a more savory-oriented dessert, try the yoltamal, a faintly sweet tamal made from freshly shaved corn kernels; tangy crema, served on the side, is like icing on the cake. It’s enough to make you wonder why there’s not more Nicaraguan food in Philly.

“I want the people try our food,” Orozco said. “I’m so proud of my food.”

Pinolero at 1100 E. Tioga St. is open 11 a.m. to 6 p.m. Tuesday through Friday and 11 a.m. to 7 p.m. Saturday. Closed Sunday and Monday. For more details, check instagram.com/pinolerophilly.