CT restaurant group expanding portfolio with Mexican cantina featuring food ‘made with love'

Yahoo

31-01-2025

The DORO Restaurant Group is expanding its portfolio with another tasty stop for food lovers.
No Mames Mexican Cantina will begin serving up authentic Mexican cuisine at 1140 Silas Deane Highway in Wethersfield this spring.
'We have the entire team ready to go to open as fast as we can,' the group's co-owner Dorjan Puka said. 'Our chef cooks with a passion for Mexican food. We took a trip to Mexico and checked out some great places there.'
Puka said depending on construction, No Mames Mexican Cantina will be opening in about two months.
'No Mames is built around the idea of being in Mexico City and street fair food,' said Scott Miller, chief operating officer for the DORO Restaurant group. 'It's an eclectic mix of food from that region, but we aren't just penciling in on a certain region of Mexico. We are pulling from several different regions of Mexico.
'We are trying to be as authentic as possible with the cuisine and bar as we see fit,' he added. 'At the same time, we want to make it as approachable as possible for the people of Wethersfield and the surrounding towns. We are going to use words like tacos and tortillas on our menu and put our own spin on it. We are going to paint this picture of being in Mexico City and immersed in the culture.'
Miller said the DORO Restaurant Group's owners are former chefs who love food and love to travel. He said they fell in love with Mexican food.
'We aren't Mexican, and we don't pretend to be,' Miller said Some people may ask, 'What are these gringos doing opening up a Mexican restaurant?' But we fell in love with Mexican food, the taste, the vibrancy, the spices. We've spent time there and we are excited to bring that to Wethersfield.'
Puka noted that the salsas and corn tortillas will be made in-house, there will be large portions and the food will be prepared in the middle of the dining room in the view of the customers.
Ryan Van Grouw will be the executive chef at No Mames Mexican Cantina. The New Jersey native honed his craft for 15 years in multiple restaurants in New York City.
'I'm super excited to bring a new approach, an almost modern Mexican style of food,' Van Grouw said. 'Mexican food to me is simple on the surface but underneath is super complex with the way you prepare the ingredients. Whether you grill or sauté, the flavor profiles come out different.
'To me, in Mexican food and cuisine, there is a lot of love that goes into preparing the food and that is what we are going for. The food is going to be full of flavor, bright colors and crisp vegetables. We are excited about bringing our vision of Mexican cuisine to the area,' he added. 'We are super excited to be a part of this community.'
Van Grouw and his wife Bonnie are expecting the birth of their second son right around the time of the restaurant's scheduled opening this spring.
The Van Grouws live in Wethersfield, just five minutes from the new restaurant. Van Grouw has been the executive chef at Avert Brasserie, a French-inspired DORO restaurant located at 35 Lasalle Road in West Harford, since May 2022.
'It's been an awesome ride,' Van Grouw said. 'This is a hard-working team and I'm happy to be a part of it. Our food is made with love.'
DORO Restaurant Group, based in West Hartford, already has Treva, DORO Marketplace, Artisanal Burger Company, Zohara Mediterranean Kitchen, Avert Brasserie and Casadoro Ristorante & Bar among its offerings.
Most recently, Casadoro opened last month at 2929 Berlin Turnpike in Newington, which was previously the site of Bertucci's Brick Oven Pizza & Pasta.
'It's doing great,' Puka said. 'Treva is more the Rome region and Casadoro is more south of that region, authentic Italian. We have a pizza, a big section of pasta as well as fish and meats. We are known for our pasta and have large family dinners. It's like going to grandma's for a big meal for everyone.'
DORO Marketplace has locations in West Hartford, Windsor Locks and Wethersfield. The Marketplace is 'Inspired by the cafes and bakeries of Europe.' according to its website. The locations offer scratch-made baked bread, warm cappuccino, prepared sandwiches, salads, desserts, pasta and pesto.
Zohara Mediterranean Kitchen, located at 991 Farmington Avenue in West Hartford, food is inspired by culinary choices from North Africa, the Middle East, Eastern Europe, Turkey and Greece.
Treva, located at 980 Farmington Avenue in West Hartford, features food inspired by the central and northern regions of Italy. Handcrafted dishes are prepared with in-season ingredients.
DORO Restaurant Group also has Artisanal Burger Company, a handcrafted burger restaurant located at 1436 Pleasant Valley Road in Manchester.
DORO has plans on more properties in the works including a second Zohara as well as new DORO Marketplace locations in Glastonbury and Plainville. Timeframes for those locations aren't known yet.
Puka started cooking in his native Albania when he was 14 years old. During that time, he visited Italy, Greece and Germany as well as other European countries.
'I started as a line cook and I never went to school for it, but I developed a passion for it, and I learned from the right people. I learned for myself and that's the mark of all great chefs,' Puka said.
He and his wife moved to the U.S. in 1998. Puka worked for multiple restaurants in Connecticut and California with the dream of opening up his first restaurant.
'I put my head down and I worked,' Puka said. 'We opened our first restaurant, Trava, in 2010.'
The couple lives in West Hartford and has seen immense growth in restaurants in the city in the last 15 years.
'West Hartford and the surrounding towns and very business-oriented,' Puka said. 'The fact that there are so many great restaurants has made it a destination for so many people. We attract people from all around and the quality of restaurants here makes it special. I feel the restaurants helped turn the town around. Outdoor dining was big for the West Hartford scene. Outdoor patios make us unique, and I have them for all three of my West Hartford restaurants in the summer.
'When you are eating outside you feel like you are on vacation, but you are in West Hartford,' he added. 'You can't find in Manhattan such a small block with such great restaurants.'
Puka said DORO's overall secret to its success is that they love what they do.
'We are always thinking about putting out a great product and providing great service,' Puka said. 'We are in the hospitality business, and we aren't just thinking about making money we think about our customers and how we can make our restaurant better for our customers. That's our focus. We want to get better every day.'
Another reason for the success of its restaurants is its staff, Miller said.
'We hire well. We hire more hospitality-driven personalities and that just doesn't pertain to our servers and bartenders, it's our management team and chefs as well,' Miller said. 'When people come in they are taken care of. They are a guest and not a customer, and we want to blow away their expectations on every visit.
'We love what we do,' Miller added. 'We are passionate about the restaurant business, and we understand the definition of what a good restaurant is. We've traveled all across the country and all across the world and we want to bring those experiences to Hartford County. Dorjan and I have lived here for 20-plus years, and we know what people want. We aren't trying to bring in a concept the area won't accept. We are immersed here. We understand the demographic because we are the demographic.'