Cocina Latina, which opened February 2019, is a vibrant realization of Chef Maritza Rios’s vision.

Dark wooden tables and banquettes with multi-colored upholstery take up the majority of the seating area. Additional space is available at the cozy bar in the rear. Paired with cream-colored walls and black-painted ductwork, these features might make for an unremarkable dining room, but Rios smartly filled the room with Gomez's Technicolor, Latin-inspired paintings. They give Cocina Latina the feeling of an art gallery as much as a restaurant.

Maritza Rios

HEAD CHEF/ OWNER

The concept comes from Maritza Rios, a native of Peru who lived in New York – where she worked in restaurants specializing in everything from Japanese and Spanish to Italian cuisine – for 22 years before moving to the St. Louis area. Rios opened her first restaurant, El Paisano, in Jefferson County 18 years ago. Today, a separate location is still operating in south city.

“Being in New York and being exposed to so many different types of cuisines, you really just want to make everything,” Rios says. “Cocina Latina comes from my desire to share more than just one style of Latin food. We have different options including some of my family’s favorites.”