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Las Marías.- More than three decades ago, Artemio Valentín Figueroa gave up on college to save his father’s farm. He wanted to retire from the business, located in La Palma sector, in Las Marías, that helped him bring up his large family through agriculture and coffee processing.

However, by taking charge of the place where he grew up and worked with his four siblings, he understood the hardships of building a company exposed to the onslaught of nature and the economy, but the challenge did not break him.

It was then that Valentín Figueroa and his wife María del Rosario saw the opportunity to create a roastery with their own brand, La Casona coffee, and later, an agritourism destination, as well as La Casona de Artemio restaurant, where he became an expert in Puerto Rican cuisine.

“We started little by little with the brand, selling to small businesses. But then sales dropped, and we decided to enter agritourism (during the early 2000s). We worked for many years receiving both local and foreign tourists. But as soon as the tours were finished, they would buy some coffee and then ask where they could go eat. There was nothing,” recalled Valentín.

“My wife said that we already had the farm, the coffee mill, the roastery, and agritourism, so we decided to venture into restaurants. La Casona de Artemio was born from there. We decided to open the restaurant to offer the full experience. We greeted the tourists, we gave them a tour of the farm, we showed them the coffee mill, the coffee process, they bought their coffee, and then ate some Puerto Rican food,” said Valentín.

The restaurant opened on March 13, 2013 with a menu containing four dishes, including chicken breast and fried chicken.

They would bring the visitors to the restaurant after taking a tour of the farm, which previously was about 134 acres, and included coffee, orange, and plantain crops. However, they had to suspend the tours after Hurricane María’s passage.

“I have always cooked and I even taught one of my kids, who now helps me. People know us for our Puerto Rican food, but we also serve churrasco (skirt steak), our arroz mamposteao (stewed rice and beans) recipe, flounder fillet, shrimp in casona sauce, as well as carne frita (fried pork) and stuffed mofongo (fried plantain mash),” he explained, noting that the restaurant’s menu features around 15 dishes.

“We also created the ‘tostonburger’, which is a large tostón (fried plantain) that we fill with churrasco, beef, chicken breast, or flounder. We made the Teyo, my dad’s nickname, which is a 10-ounce hamburger; we add bacon, onion, white cheese, mozzarella, Swiss cheese, lettuce, and tomato. We make stewed beans, white rice, and a salad that is mixed with watercress,” he said.

Another specialty is the ‘panaburger’, a hamburger made from breadfruit with sautéed onions, Swiss cheese, lettuce, tomato, chimichurri, pico de gallo, and other ingredients.

According to Valentín Figueroa, the restaurant generates 11 jobs, while four people work on the farm.

When asked about his diners’ favorite dish, Valentín Figueroa assured that “they all sell well. There’s weekends where we sell up to 30 chuletas can can (porkchops) in two days. On other weekends, we sell a lot of churrasco, or Teyo.”

Likewise, the desserts are made by Valentín, including orange or coffee cake, as well as orange, coffee or pumpkin flan, and a Spanish-style cheese tart. And of course, another favorite is La Casona coffee in its different varieties.

The estate that houses Artemio’s restaurant is an old structure that was built more than 150 years ago. Of that original construction, “only the floor’s foundation remains; those boards are from trees from the farm.”

The original name is Hacienda Palma Escrita, owned by the Roché family in the late 19th century and early 20th century.

“This point was a grocery store. It was where everyone who came down from the barrios used to stop here with their horses. Here they ate, the horses rested, and then they departed for Mayagüez to take the farm products to the docks. The trip would take about five or six days,” he said.

Despite the sacrifice that running both the farm and the restaurant entails, Valentín Figueroa revealed that he has “plans to move the roasting facility to expand the open terrace restaurant, so that people come and have a view of the farm. We currently have capacity for 50 people.”

In addition, he doesn’t rule out reinstating the tours through the space of about 44 acres of land and another farm of 38 acres, where they continue to grow coffee, plantains, and oranges.

For details, visit en.prcafelacasona.com or call 787-210-8252.