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<\/p>\nASHEVILLE, N.C. (WLOS) \u2014 Nearly two years after Helene washed away its food truck, prep kitchen and neighboring bar, an Asheville restaurant is beginning a new chapter in the same River Arts District where its story started.<\/p>\n
Guajiro Cuban Comfort Food has opened its new brick-and-mortar restaurant inside the historic Asheville Cotton Mill, marking a homecoming years in the making for the family behind the business.<\/p>\n
For co-owner and chef Joel Morales, being back in a kitchen also means returning to something he has known for much of his life.<\/p>\n
\u201cI started cooking alongside family and friends when I was 18. I\u2019ve been cooking for a long time,\u201d Morales said.<\/p>\n
CORNER KITCHEN WINS SBA’S PHOENIX AWARD FOR POST-HELENE COMEBACK<\/p>\n
But getting to cook inside a permanent Guajiro restaurant was never guaranteed.<\/p>\n
In Sept. 2024, Helene devastated parts of Asheville’s River Arts District. Guajiro’s food truck, prep kitchen and neighboring bar were in the path of the storm.<\/p>\n
In the immediate aftermath, widespread communication outages left Morales unsure of what had happened to the business.<\/p>\n
\u201cI didn’t know the magnitude of the damage because the cell phone service was down. There was no way to communicate with each other. It wasn\u2019t until two days later that I found out we lost everything,\u201d Morales said.<\/p>\n
What followed was not a quick rebuild.<\/p>\n
<\/p>\n
SEPT. 17, 2026 – Food at Guajiro Cuban Comfort Food in Asheville. (Photo credit: WLOS Staff)<\/p>\n
Before contractors could begin transforming the space, the team spent months clearing mud and debris from the Asheville Cotton Mill by hand.<\/p>\n
\u201cHelene came one day, you know, knocked us down. We spent months cleaning up this building by hand, getting it to the point where we could have contractors come in here,\u201d co-owner Christian Barroso said.<\/p>\n
As work continued on the building, Guajiro found a way to keep serving customers. The team secured another food truck and established a temporary home at Hi-Wire Brewing in Biltmore Village.<\/p>\n
The food truck kept the business moving, but Barroso said a permanent space had always been the dream. <\/p>\n
\u201cI didn’t know it would happen this quickly. Helene was unfortunate, but because of Helene we were able to come in here and start this,” Barroso said.<\/p>\n
That goal has now become a reality inside the same historic building the team helped clean out following the storm.<\/p>\n
AFTER HELENE, ARSON, HIGH FIVE COFFEE PLANS ANOTHER COMEBACK<\/p>\n
For Morales, the new restaurant represents more than replacing what was lost.<\/p>\n
\u201cIt\u2019s like a story that shows what we\u2019re capable of. There were difficult times because bad things happened, like the loss of our business and the rebuilding, but we\u2019re so excited to be back. We\u2019re grateful to the Asheville community and our customers that have always supported us,\u201d Morales said.<\/p>\n
The opening also comes during Hispanic Heritage Month, which runs from Sept. 15 through Oct. 15.<\/p>\n
At Guajiro, that heritage is reflected throughout the restaurant and in a menu built around Cuban food and traditions.<\/p>\n
The restaurant is opening in phases as the team settles into its permanent space.<\/p>\n
For the people behind Guajiro, opening the doors follows roughly four years of building the business through food trucks, followed by the destruction caused by Helene and nearly two years of recovery.<\/p>\n
\u201cThere\u2019s really no words to describe what that moment felt like, but we\u2019ve been able to rebuild little by little and we\u2019re moving forward, all thanks to God,\u201d Morales said.<\/p>\n
Now, after years of serving customers from food trucks and rebuilding from a storm that threatened the future of the business, Guajiro has something it did not have before Helene: a permanent home in the River Arts District.<\/p>\n
A new kitchen, a permanent home and a family’s dream coming to life.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"
ASHEVILLE, N.C. (WLOS) \u2014 Nearly two years after Helene washed away its food truck, prep kitchen and neighboring bar, an Asheville restaurant is beginning a new chapter in the same River Arts District where its story started. Guajiro Cuban Comfort Food has opened its new brick-and-mortar restaurant inside the historic Asheville Cotton Mill, marking a<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":30751,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[270],"tags":[580,581,582,583],"class_list":["post-30750","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-cuban-cafes","tag-cuban-cafe","tag-cuban-cafes","tag-cuban-restaurant","tag-cuban-restaurants"],"share_on_mastodon":{"url":"https:\/\/vive.im\/@dnc\/117316862912461645","error":""},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.diningandcooking.com\/restaurants\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/30750","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.diningandcooking.com\/restaurants\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.diningandcooking.com\/restaurants\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.diningandcooking.com\/restaurants\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.diningandcooking.com\/restaurants\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=30750"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.diningandcooking.com\/restaurants\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/30750\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.diningandcooking.com\/restaurants\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/30751"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.diningandcooking.com\/restaurants\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=30750"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.diningandcooking.com\/restaurants\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=30750"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.diningandcooking.com\/restaurants\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=30750"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}