Every Thursday, you can find Rosa Cardoza leaving her Lenexa restaurant and heading out to a “secret” location somewhere in Kansas to purchase plantains for her dessert empanadas.
She’s hesitant to give the exact location of the store because she says it’s the only one in the area that provides her with the perfectly ripe plantains needed to make her signature sweet treat on her newest restaurant’s menu.
“If (the plantains) are too ripe, we can’t use them,” Cardoza said. “They’re just no good. When I can’t find the right (plantains), then we won’t have them that week.”
Speaking through her daughter, Sarai, who translates, Rosa describes the weekly pressures to stock up on eight boxes of those ripe plantains to satisfy the orders of “empanadas de platano” at her two restaurants: El Rinconcito Salvadoreño, which opened in Kansas City, KS two years ago, and now El Rinconcito Salvadoreño #2 in Lenexa, which has been open since January.
El Rinconcito is open in old Le Peep space
El Rinconcito means “The Little Corner” in Spanish, and its new second location operates at 7936 Quivira Rd.
That address is where breakfast diner Le Peep formerly operated for decades before closing in 2018.
The new restaurant features a large menu drawing on many influences, including Cuban, Nicaraguan, and Colombian.
The Lenexa location also offers one item not found on the menu at Cardoza’s original Kansas City, Kan., restaurant: tacos.
“I couldn’t do that at the [other] location because the owner of our building has a shop on the same street that already sells tacos,” Cardoza said.
Pupusas are the menu’s highlight
In addition to the tacos, Cardoza prides herself on her pupusas, which she says are made with high quality cheese and are a little less greasy than other restaurants’.
For the kids, she fills her menu with everything from quesadillas to chicken tenders.
In winter, crowds come her for traditional soups, or caldo, as well as more adventurous fare like cow feet or hen soup.
Come summertime, she expects to see a larger demand for carne asada (steak), and pollo en crema (chicken with Salvadoran cream).
Original KCK location opened in 2021
Cardoza was the former kitchen manager at El Pulgarcito Salvadoran Restaurant in Merriam for 14 years and makes her home in Shawnee.
She says she had been searching for a location like the former Le Peep space in Johnson County for the past five years.
By chance, she got the opportunity to open the first El Rinconcito in KCK in 2021.
Nearly two years later, she came across the chance to move into Lenexa.
“I fell in love with this building right away,” Cardoza said, of the old Le Peep space, which has five times the square footage of the other restaurant off 47th Street and Parallel Parkway in KCK. “You feel right away like this is a warm environment. It’s very clean, peaceful, and I just love the vibe you get when you walk in.”
Cardoza’s family helps run the business
At El Pulgarcito, she helped the owner build the menu, and that is one of the many hats she wears now at El Rinconcito.
She continues to work seven days a week and is now splitting her time between the two locations.
“I tried to make the dishes authentic (to El Salvador), but the recipes are also my own invention,” Cardoza said. “We do everything handmade and homemade.”
El Rinconcito #2 is very much a family operation.
Rosa’s son, Franklin, is in charge of shopping and bringing fresh ingredients to the restaurants everyday.
Sarai, who graduated last year from the University of Missouri-Kansas City, is putting her accounting degree to use.
Rosa’s sister Josefina and niece Anna both keep the Lenexa kitchen up and running, for breakfast, lunch and dinner.
“I’m excited for people to try so many different things we have on the menu,” Cardoza said. “I enjoy seeing people fall in love with something after they try it.”
El Rinconcito Salvadoreno #2 is open everyday from 10 a.m.- 8 p.m. in Lenexa.
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