For those in Bakersfield looking for a piece of Cuban culture there is local restaurant Rincon Cubano.

Rincon Cubano has been open for about eight months. It is a family run restaurant that serves mainly Cuban food, but also serves some Mexican dishes.

The owner, Releydis Andreu, describes Cuban food as a mix of cultures from different regions, places like Spain and Africa. Andreu believes it gives Cuban food a “more unique flavor.”

Andreu says that Cuban food is well seasoned without being too spicy. When she makes her food she “mixes it all together” and uses ingredients like garlic, onions and bell peppers. Their signature dish is their pojo al ajillo, which is a garlic chicken dish. The dish is first roasted, and then is fried. A mojo sauce is then combined with onions and garlic. All their dishes come with black beans, white rice and plantains.

Andreu has been cooking since she was little with her mother and grandmother.

“I have always loved being in the kitchen and learning to cook,” she said. “It pleases me to see how people can enjoy the food.”

Andreu was a chef at the two Cuban restaurants in Bakersfield and when some closed she wanted to open one of her own to keep Cuban culture alive locally.

“I love my culture and my people and everything my culture has to offer,” she said. “ I really didn’t want that to die and for it to stand out among so many other cultures here.”

For Andreu she celebrates her culture by making her restaurant “feel like home.” Even the name of the restaurant, Rincon, translates to little place.

“Even in the decoration we want to show what Cuba is like,” she said. “ We wanted people that walk in, or people that are from Cuba that haven’t been there a long time, to feel like they are at home.”

She feels that she has been successful in giving her restaurant that homey, Cuban,atmosphere.

“Every time we get customers from Cuba or places that are much like Cuba, they have told us ‘this feels like home,’ people from Puerto Rica, Cuba, Dominican Republic, Venezuela, they always express that and we’re very glad to have accomplished that,” she said.

People not as aware of Cuban culture still enjoy coming to Rincon Cubano. Yaissel Andreu, Releydis’s daughter, describes how people for whom Cuban food is new enjoy the restaurant.

“The response from the people has been really good, even from people who have not tried this food before,” she said. “For them it’s new and they still love it.  They feel really good about it and express it that way. We have really good reviews at yelp.com and most of the people that have left reviews are people that have not tried it before or are not actually Cuban but are from different cultures.”