Former Food Truck and Pop Up Will Open Its First Brick and Mortar Restaurant This Summer Featuring Puerto Rican/Soul Food Fusion Fare
(Durham, NC) – April 18, 2019 – Boricua Soul, one of the first businesses to occupy American Tobacco’s popular PopUp @ ATC space, is taking its experience to the big leagues and opening its first ever brick and mortar restaurant. The eatery is expected to debut by August with 1,800 SF in the Crowe Lobby and will open up to the campus lawn via foldable doors, allowing for patio seating.
Tastemakers Toriano and Serena Fredericks — who, previous to their pop-up experience, ran Boricua Soul as a much-in-demand food truck — will transform restaurant space in the Crowe Building. There, they’ll continue to serve up their acclaimed take on Puerto Rican dishes enhanced with exciting twists developed around West African, Native Indian and European ingredients and techniques that came to Puerto Rico and the American South as a result of the African slave trade.
In addition to a full lunch and dinner menu, Boricua Soul will also welcome music, poetry and other live performances to a stage that will be programmed year round.
Click here for a video laying out Boricua Soul’s journey. Click here for photos of the cuisine.
“We are so excited to be working with American Tobacco to bring our restaurant dream to life,” says Serena. “With a comfortable space designed to share delicious food amongst family and friends while you experience live performances in a world-class setting like the campus, I believe we’re creating a restaurant that will become a home for repeat customers.”
American Tobacco has been working with Boricua Soul since their successful run in the PopUp space in September 2018 to develop an exciting offering unlike anything in the city.
Adds Toriano, “Puerto Rican and cuisine in the American South are both unique and so familiar. We hope the spin that has created legions of fans to our food truck will continue to delight new customers as well as pay homage to the family members who taught us everything we know about both delicious cuisines.”
The restaurant is the first in a series of announcements that bring to life the revisioning of American Tobacco’s restaurant and retail offerings created in partnership between teams from the campus and global leader CBRE.
“Boricua Soul represents a commitment to seek out and support the best and brightest restaurateurs and entrepreneurs for the limited spaces we have on a campus that welcomes 4,000 daily workers and residents and more than 1.3 million annual visitors,” says Adam Klein, chief strategist, Capitol Broadcasting Company. “Tori and Serena are incredible leaders in the Durham community who make this city remarkable. We’re diligently working to bring new flavors, new ideas and new opportunities to not only the campus but to Downtown Durham.”
Boricua Soul will take up approximately 1,800 sf. The space will feature a stage and large foldable window door to open the restaurant to the campus.
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