New Restaurant Freakin' Puerto Rican Food Coming To Brick

BRICK, NJ — Brick Township has a wide variety of restaurants, from diners and pizza places to Italian, Irish and more. Soon it will add another flavor to that mix, when a Puerto Rican restaurant opens in town.

Freakin' Puerto Rican Food is planning to open its restaurant in The Shoppes at New Visions, the retail stores attached to the Residence Club — New Visions at Brick, the apartment and condominium complex behind the U.S. Post Office and near the Kohls/ShopRite shopping center in Brick.

It will be owned by Raquel Sud and Debra Kapolka, sisters from New York, who have moved to the Jersey Shore. They've decided to put their corporate skills — Sud's background is in marketing, while Kapolka has a background in business and finance — to work, along with Sud's skills with food, to appeal to a group that has been overlooked in the menus around the area.

"You have Chinese, you have Italian, you have Mexican, but there are no Puerto Rican restaurants," Sud said. "You have to drive 40 or 50 miles to get it."

The sisters have announced their intent on Facebook, and Sud said the response so far has been overwhelming. Their Facebook page has 2,100 likes through word-of-mouth, and many people have commented about their eagerness to try the food.

The menu will include "delicious fritters, stews, slow-roasted meats, rice, beans and pressed sandwiches" that are a staple throughout New York City, they said on their Facebook page.

"The Freakin’ Puerto Rican 'criollo' recipes originate from our Euro-Spanish ancestors and focus on fresh, bold and savory flavor profiles like garlic, olives, citrus, cilantro, cumin, coriander and oregano. Bananas, plantains and root vegetables like yautia, malanga and ñame are what makes this food so distinctive," the description on Facebook said.

"Puerto Ricans are a combination of multiple races and our food is as unique as we are," the sisters wrote on their website, www.freakinpuertorican.com. "Hispanics are not all the same. We each have our own way of speaking and cooking. Puerto Rican food is in a class all by itself! If you are not Puerto Rican but know someone who is, you get it... No tacos, no cheese, no refried beans -- we are Freakin' Puerto Rican food!"

Sud said they do not yet have a grand opening date as they are waiting for permits from Brick Township so they can begin the interior work to open the restaurant. She said the estimate is they will be able to open 30 days after they receive their permits.

Photos from the Freakin' Puerto Rican Facebook page, used with permission