A new Cuban café called Sweet Colada has opened in Louisville’s Shelby Park neighborhood. And owner Nachely Martinez says it grows from the legacy of her family’s bakery. As Louisville celebrates Hispanic Heritage Month, Martinez shares what this moment means for her, the role of food in honoring heritage and her hopes for the future of Sweet Colada.
This conversation has been edited for length and clarity.
Ayisha Jaffer: You started your journey helping behind the scenes at your parents' restaurant, Sweet Havana. What led you to take the leap and open Sweet Colada and how does it feel to carry your family's legacy forward in a new way?
Nachely Martinez: I think that's exactly why I took the leap, to continue to carry my family's legacy. I saw something that they were so passionate about. My mom has worked so hard on this for so many years, and I wanted them, first of all, to have an option for retirement. I wanted to continue their legacy, and I wanted to give them the opportunity to have choices. And then, second of all, for me, it was really a cultural exploration.
I think once we immigrate to the United States, we try to assimilate so much that we start to forget where we come from. And we try to adapt so much to corporate America and just the norms of society, and we start to adapt away from our roots. And so for me, really being in Sweet Havana always reminds me of home.
And I thought, how cool. What if more people could feel that way in more spaces? So for me, Sweet Colada was that café version. We wanted to create more accessible Cuban items and popularize them. I want the Cuban sandwich to be as popular as a taco. I want the Cuban cafecito to be a household staple as well as croquetas, and for people to feel like it is a part of
home.
AJ: Sweet Colada highlights, just like you said, recipes and traditions from your Cuban heritage. What does it mean for you to share that food with the community here in Louisville?
NM: It's very personal for me. When we first got to the States, I remember my mom making my grandma's flan at home and trying to sell it to different businesses around the neighborhood. And it's the same exact recipe that we're using at Sweet Colada 28 years later. For me, it is part of my story, but it's also part of the Cuban story.
With the situation right now in Cuba, we've slowly lost some food items along the way that are just not made anymore. I'll give you an example. There's an item on the menu called tortica morón. It’s a Cuban shortbread cookie. And that no longer is readily sold in Cuba, but it's something that my mom used to get when she was in school.
So it was almost like snack time you get tortica morón or you would get masa real. It was like the snack food that you got when you're in school. And I think through the generations, we slowly lost a little bit of that. So to me, I feel very proud to be able to keep some of those traditions and staple items within the menu.
AJ: Food isn't just about taste, it can carry identity and connection. How do you see the food that you serve at Sweet colada doing that, and what do you hope it means for people who come there or what do you hope people take away when they leave Sweet Colada?
NM: So that was a big part in the branding. When we were sitting down thinking about the name for Sweet Colada, we kept saying, community, community, community. And it has that "cuh" sound. And we're like coffee, community, coffee, community. And I think a lot of people feel that way when they think about coffee or the dining table–it brings people together, brings people over a conversation.
And a colada for us is the Cuban café. So a colada is about four ounces of espresso with sugar. It's a very strong Cuban coffee, and we serve it in colada cups. So coladita cups. There are many little one ounce cups. When we thought of the name, that was a big factor of it. So colada, community, coffee.
AJ: It all connects.
NM: It all connects.
AJ: What kind of role do you hope Sweet Colada plays in Shelby Park, not just as a place to eat and drink, but as part of the neighborhood?
NM: Shelby Park has been an amazing neighborhood for us. There's so much history. Everybody's very proud of the long generations before them that lived in that neighborhood and all the history woven into that fabric, and so I hope Sweet Colada can be part of that beautiful history and continue to celebrate and supplement it.
