On this week’s episode of the Flavors of Northwest Arkansas podcast, we get an update about a grand opening, and we talk to the owner and chef of the only Cuban restaurant in the state of Arkansas.

Mallory Files is going from charcuterie business owner to charcuterie studio and wine bar business owner, and she’ll be open VERY soon. We’ll hear from her.

Also, if you’ve been to the Havana Tropical Grill in Rogers, you’ve been to the only Cuban restaurant in the state. Owner and chef Francisco Galdamez was born in El Salvador and he came to the US at a young age and went to school in Boston.

I talked to him about getting into the restaurant business, and he started at the VERY bottom and worked his way up. His first job was washing dishes at the Logan International Airport in Boston, where he knew that the only way to make himself indispensable was to work hard and provide himself the opportunity the move up…

Francisco will tell us how he got to Northwest Arkansas… it took a while for his wife to get onboard, but he tells us why. It’s not necessarily what you think…

And how hard was it for him to educate the northwest Arkansas public in Cuban food, and how hard was it to source? It’s an ongoing process…

We talk spices, plantains, pork and so much more and we do it over Cuban coffee on this edition of the Flavors of Northwest Arkansas (available wherever you get your podcasts).