El Mojito Serving Delicious Cuban Cuisine To Eager Customers in North Platte
- published: 2024/12/10
- contact: NBDC Communications - Nebraska Business Development Center
- phone: 402.554.6256
- email: kjefferson@unomaha.edu
North Platte – You can trust the cuisine at El Mojito restaurant in North Platte is authentic, as each aromatic and flavorful plate owner Jorge Denis serves harkens back to his family and his childhood in Cuba.
Denis left Cuba and his hometown of Cienfuegos when he was only 12 years old. “It is not very easy to get out of Cuba,” says Denis, now 26. “There are two ways: legal and illegal. Very few are as lucky as I was. One of my dad’s grandparents was a Spaniard, so he was allowed to leave and become a citizen of Spain. He brought me to Spain, and I stayed there until I was 14.”
He lived on Grand Canary Island, but because of a lack of job opportunities, his father came to the United States, to Miami, Fla., and brought Jorge to the U.S. one year later, and his mother one year after that. Seven years ago, his sister came to the U.S., and her husband got a job at the Wal-Mart distribution center in North Platte. “My sister has children, and my parents wanted to be close to their grandchildren, so we all moved to North Platte,” Denis says.
Nebraska and Cuba have similarities and some big differences, he says. “My mom was a farm girl in Cuba, so that she was accustomed to,” he says. “The snow, not so much.”
Denis’ restaurant experience included jobs as a waiter and bartender, and his brother, Jose, knew how to cook and had owned a successful bar in Spain. “He and I had been talking about opening a restaurant for some time, and when we got to North Platte, we saw there was no Cuban food here,” he says, “so we started looking for a good spot.”
He and I had been talking about opening a restaurant for some time, and when we got to North Platte, we saw there was no Cuban food here, so we started looking for a good spot.
To help realize his dream, Denis was referred by the Center for Rural Affairs (CFRA) to the Nebraska Business Development Center (NBDC) and Moraine Davis-Magnuson, the NBDC’s North Platte Center Director.
“He is a real go-getter, so much so that he wanted to open within three months of our first visit,” Davis-Magnuson recalls. “He had already leased a location and begun renovations, even purchased tables, chairs and kitchen equipment. He needed a loan from the CFRA to consolidate his loans and purchase inventory, and his outdoor sign went up before we even started on the business plan and projections for the loan.”
She says the El Mojito sign lit up social media. “We have a local site with more than 31,000 members called No Limits,” she says. “It’s most often used as a for-sale site, but it’s also a place to discuss new businesses. People immediately started speculating about the restaurant and sharing excitement about the opening.”
Denis opened the restaurant June 1, 2024, and his list of satisfied customers has been growing like the menu ever since. “The ladies who cook for me are all Cuban and used to cook for families,” he says. “I have a great bartender who came up from Miami, and he is creating new drinks from scratch.”
Besides adding to an extensive menu of Cuban specialties, Denis expanded seating to an outdoor area during the summer, and recently began offering music and dancing on Friday and Saturday nights after the kitchen closes.
There are challenges in serving Cuban delicacies in Nebraska, he says. “The ingredients I need are very hard to get, like some of the fruits and yuca, and I just can’t get the plantains I need,” he says. “Wal-Mart gets a case every two days and I go every two days so I can get it right away. But they come in very green, so I have to put a wet towel over the case and store them so they ripen. I could try substituting other ingredients, but it wouldn’t taste the same.”
Davis-Magnuson says those same social media channels have come alive with good reviews of El Mojito from the restaurant’s new followers – and she considers herself a fan as well. “My husband, son, and I went right after he opened,” she says. “We absolutely loved it. I am a vegetarian and I had the fried yuca with a delicious Cuban dipping sauce. It was very yummy.”
Or, as Denis would proudly say in Spanish, “Muy delicioso!”