Heavenly Coco Cafe owners order up Chilean, Portuguese pride
Advertisement
Read this article for free:
or
Already have an account? Log in here »
To continue reading, please subscribe:
Monthly Digital Subscription
$1 per week for 24 weeks*
- Enjoy unlimited reading on winnipegfreepress.com
- Read the E-Edition, our digital replica newspaper
- Access News Break, our award-winning app
- Play interactive puzzles
*Billed as $4.00 plus GST every four weeks. After 24 weeks, price increases to the regular rate of $19.95 plus GST every four weeks. Offer available to new and qualified returning subscribers only. Cancel any time.
Monthly Digital Subscription
$4.99/week*
- Enjoy unlimited reading on winnipegfreepress.com
- Read the E-Edition, our digital replica newspaper
- Access News Break, our award-winning app
- Play interactive puzzles
*Billed as $19.95 plus GST every four weeks. Cancel any time.
To continue reading, please subscribe:
Add Free Press access to your Brandon Sun subscription for only an additional
$1 for the first 4 weeks*
*Your next subscription payment will increase by $1.00 and you will be charged $16.99 plus GST for four weeks. After four weeks, your payment will increase to $23.99 plus GST every four weeks.
Read unlimited articles for free today:
or
Already have an account? Log in here »
A taekwondo lesson and a chat — that’s how a new Chilean- and Portuguese-owned café was born in Winnipeg.
Heavenly Coco Cafe is a new eatery that opened in the North Kildonan area in late January. Its owners, Carla Velho and Stephanie Maldonado, first met during a martial arts lesson and joked about merging together their individual sweet treat businesses.
A little more than a year later, Velho combined her Heavenly Cakes and Tarts with Maldonado’s Coco Loco Treats to make Heavenly Coco Cafe.
MIKAELA MACKENZIE / FREE PRESS
‘Diversity is strong,’ says Carla Velho, co-owner of Heavenly Coco Cafe.
“It started off as a joke and became the best adventure I’ve ever been on,” said Velho.
The duo also runs a cleaning business (Coco’s Heavenly Cleaning), creates charcuterie boards and plans to launch a hotdog pop-up business (Coco’s Bites) in the spring.
“Coco everything. Everything coco. That way if anybody ever hears the word ‘coco,’ they’ll automatically think of us,” Velho said.
The café at 1111 Henderson Hwy. features Chilean empanadas (a savoury pastry filled with meat and vegetables) and chacarero (a traditional steak sandwich). There’s also bifana (a Portuguese thin-sliced pork sandwich). All the food is made in house and some are inspired by family recipes.
Velho, who is from Portugal, said it’s important that her and Maldonado’s heritage is represented in the food they create.
“Diversity is strong and needs to be uplifted and roared. I think we are going to bring that to this part of the city for sure. We have a Mexican restaurant next door (BMC Taqueria) and together we’re going to be loud, as loud as we can be,” said Velho, 39.
“I feel on top of the world. I came from poverty, it was a big thing in my life up until I was 13.”
For Maldonado, the café represents her dream. When she was around 18 years old one of her brothers asked her if money wasn’t an object, what would she want to do in the future, and her response was to open a bakery and bringing her Chilean culture in the process.
MIKAELA MACKENZIE / FREE PRESS
Heavenly Coco Cafe at 1111 Henderson Hwy.
Now, she hopes to inspire her niece to chase her dreams, too.
She said the café was started because there needs to be more authentic Chilean or Portuguese options in Winnipeg.
Maldonado, 34, said Latin cuisine goes beyond tacos and fajitas. Heavenly Coco Cafe also has new menu items weekly, and the owners hope to open more locations in the coming years.
“Our ultimate goal is to be in every corner of the city in five years,” said Velho. “Here we are today. We’re building a bigger, better brand for our kids in the future.”
fpcity@freepress.mb.ca