At Berri with Owner Siobhán Chavarría

Note: This story was produced for our spring 2020 issue before the COVID-19 crisis. Please see end of article for business updates.

Where a Menu Inspired by Latin American Roots and Cross-Cultural Travel Celebrates New England’s Four Seasons

Siobhán Chavarría couldn’t help but drink in the unique culinary culture of her native Costa Rica when she was a child—flavors that she didn’t leave behind when she moved from the lush Central American country to Providence later in her youth. The family kitchen continued to celebrate that heritage as she grew up; Chavarría by her parents’ side as they made traditional Costa Rican dishes like sweet plantains with honey or Gallo Pinto—rice and beans usually served with huevos fritos and tortillas.

Though passionate about food, Chavarría never considered it a career path. Instead, the petite, soft-spoken brunette, who also shares Irish heritage, studied anthropology, a major that took her abroad to explore the history and bold flavors of Spain while living in Madrid.

It was Catalonia and Basque country that captivated her immediately. “I was very drawn to the food culture there—whole cultures centered around food,” she says. The experience ignited a passion in Chavarría. “I just kind of dove in,” she says.

Then palpably younger than most of her Providence restaurateur counterparts, she co-founded Flan y Ajo, a tapas and BYOB eatery, in 2011 at just 23 years old. Calling it her “creative project,” Chavarría says the restaurant’s space was tiny but workable. “It was a huge risk but it was what we wanted to do.”

For three years, Flan y Ajo’s small plates summoning Spanish flavors continued to win the hearts and palates of everyone from food critics to college students with a menu as savory and intentional as it was affordable. With just two induction burners and a convection oven, the water-closet-sized kitchen churned out crab-stuffed pepper pintxos, pa amb tomàquet (Catalan tomato bread) and arguably their most raved about if not most simple dish, patatas bravas.

In 2013, she and her former partner opened Bodega Malasaña, a wine bar equally intimate as Flan y Ajo with an international wine list and constantly refreshed beer selection. But in time, Chavarría found herself yearning to make the food she knew best.

“In my head, I was giving the same care and attention, but I was thinking about my own food culture and what I grew up with.”

Knowing unequivocally she had to follow her heart, the partners closed the two restaurants. “We just had different ideas and were at a different point,” Chavarría says. Her soul searching took her to France where she worked on organic farms, learning more about soil, planting and peak harvesting. She made her next home in New York City, where she studied wine with an unwavering intensity. “I never felt like my cup was full,” she explains.

Her enviable travels led her to one conclusion: “It seemed like a good time to come back to Providence … to get a little experimental,” Chavarría says. “I felt I had a lot of creative energy and couldn’t get it out working under someone else.” When conceptualizing Berri, she wanted a restaurant where dining and dishes were an experience, mindful of time and place.

The restaurant’s interior is minimal: white walls with white tile, a poured concrete bar with sleek lines, warm lighting and open kitchen punctuated by natural elements including a drop “ceiling” fashioned from broad wooden slats. In other words, ideal for food snappers to capture Insta-envy images at every angle. The menu is said to be influenced by “tropicália, fields of grass and flowers, and seaside cities” and could present as pretentious, yet it’s anything but.

“By no means is it haute cuisine,” says Chavarría. “Our food is more a celebration of peasant food than anything else.”

Alongside her in the kitchen is Chef Esteban Quijada Link, who employs equal devotion to handcrafted food. The two originally met in Providence and reconnected in New York after Quijada Link returned from working in kitchens in Copenhagen, Denmark.

Though Costa Rica is Berri’s culinary inspiration, the terroir of coastal New England is its cornerstone. Chavarría sources from local producers, with dishes taking a cue from what’s available in season. Stone-ground flour for house-made bread comes from 324-year-old Kenyon Grist Mill; lettuces, squash, tomatoes and herbs from White Barn Farm in Wrentham; duck eggs from Osamequin Farm in Seekonk, and whatever is available from Little City Growers Cooperative— a Providence-based farmer-run co-op that’s part of the Southside Community Land Trust.

“They grow a lot of interesting herbs that are otherwise hard to find,” she explains.

Other purveyors include Wright’s Dairy Farm, Pat’s Pastured, Frenchtown Farms and Walrus & Carpenter oysters. But other key ingredients are anything but local. These include the corn for from-scratch tortillas Chavarría sources from a cooperative based in Oaxaca, Mexico, where families have been cultivating traditional maize for centuries. Berri’s black beans are also sourced from a different Mexican cooperative nearby.

There aren’t strict rules about cooking in the kitchen at Berri, Chavarría says, explaining Latin American cuisine is the foundation but that can be loosely interpreted. Less than a year in, she says the restaurant has experimented liberally since opening but is honing its signature dishes based on customer demand. Chavarría has introduced a Tropical Brunch series and would like to eventually offer lunch service—expansion that is all just part of Berri’s growth.

“The most important thing is the integrity and the local ingredients.”

Berri
187 Mathewson St., Providence
401.919.5587; LaBerri.com

Updated April 9, 2020: Open for takeout with adjusted made-from-scratch menu and housemade bread. Purchase tote bags to help support the future of Berri. Follow them on Instagram for updates and visit their website for ordering. https://www.laberri.com