Carmen’s Table brings Puerto Rican barbecue — and a grandmother’s dream — to South Jersey

A new Puerto Rican-inspired barbecue restaurant in South Jersey is helping one grandmother accomplish a lifelong dream.

Carmen’s Table — which opens March 27 at 200 E. Evesham Road in Glendora, N.J., in the former location of Kitchen 519 — is named after Roselyn Gonzalez’s 76-year-old mother Carmen Gonzalez, a woman known in Northeast Philadelphia, the Bronx, and Puerto Rico for her homemade sofrito and snack platters.

Carmen’s goal, her daughter said, was to open a takeout joint. But as a single mother of six, Gonzalez said, she had to settle for selling banana leaf-wrapped pasteles and deep-fried beef-stuffed alcapurrias to her neighbors for extra income. Now, Carmen’s name and image adorns the front of a restaurant. The menu, which spans Puerto Rican comfort food and Southern-style barbecue, sprinkles her recipes throughout.

“I like to say that my mother has all the hard parts of me,” Roselyn Gonzalez, 57, told the Inquirer. “She’s not much of a compliments person ... but right now, she’ll tell anyone [who asks] that she’s proud.”

Roselyn Gonzalez, who moved from a suburb of San Juan to the Bronx with her mom when she was 12, made the offer to buy Kitchen 519’s building from owners John Stewart and Diana Smarrito six months ago. They were looking to focus on growing Revival BBQ, their takeout window in Fishtown. She wanted to open a restaurant that would bring her family together.

Roselyn Gonzalez’s eldest son Andrew Drach is the head chef at Carmen’s Table. Her other son Adam Drach and daughter Alanis Gonzalez chip in as manager and CEO respectively. Even Carmen helps in the kitchen on occasion, modeling the right way to mold pastelillos or bring caramel to a boil for flan. The family relocated to Northeast Philadelphia together in 2004, but working on the restaurant is what deepened their relationships.

“I didn’t really have patience with my mom before,” said Andrew. Now, according to his mom, it’s rare they leave a conversation angry. “We have to give a kiss, we have to say bendiciones [blessings] no matter what,” Roselyn Gonzalez said.

Carmen’s Table seats 66 people between indoor and outdoor tables that overlook the refurbished white oak-powered smoker the family purchased from Facebook marketplace, which they named Virginia.

The restaurant, Roselyn Gonzalez said, will specialize in platters of slow-cooked smoked meats with a customer’s choice of two sides and a piece of cornbread. A BYOB, the restaurant will also operate a juice bar with fruits from beloved farm stand Tony Morelli’s Market.

Still, Roselyn Gonzalez said, the heart of Carmen’s Table will be its classic hot table, a staple of the no-frills cuchifritos counters she frequented in New York City. Instead of slots for fried chicharrones or mozzarella stick-like sorullitos, the restaurant will offer staple American sides — fries, baked mac’n’cheese, and coleslaw — alongside Puerto Rican classics like rice with pigeon peas, steamed yuca marinated in a garlicky mojo sauce, and caramelized sweet plantains.

Everything — down to the vanilla ice cream on the dessert menu — will be made from scratch, just the way Carmen would. Her mother’s cooking philosophies, Roselyn Gonzalez said, are all about stretching the basics.

“If you’re smart, a plate for one person can turn into a meal for three,” she said as Carmen nodded along. “And you never let people walk away hungry.”

Carmen’s sofrito is the centerpiece of her namesake’s restaurant. Made from a finely-mixed combo of garlic, onions, ajices dulces, and a variety of herbs, the traditional Puerto Rican seasoning is spooned into rice and beans and sprinkled onto nearly every meat that Drach smokes, from pulled pork and salmon to chicken wings.

The secret, Carmen said, is to avoid using water as a binder, which dilutes the flavor. When she opened a quart container of the green seasoning for effect, the aroma filled the room. On some weekends, her family said, Carmen spends five to six hours making sofrito for friends and family.

“Some people joke that mommy puts her feet in it,” Roselyn Gonzalez said. “They know they’re getting a little bit of her.”

Other recipes have to be made Carmen’s way: The rice and pigeon peas require a silver caldero (a pot akin to a Dutch oven), for example, and pastelillos should be turned over as they fry. The turnovers are stuffed with pulled pork, beef, chicken, or guava at Carmen’s Table. They‘re crisp, golden, and not greasy in the least.

Barbecue is new to head chef Drach, who worked for 13 years as a cook at a local Applebees. He used Virginia — the refurbished smoker — for the first time just a week before opening to test his brisket recipe, which calls for a coating of salt, pepper and garlic, plus 12 hours on the grates before serving. The meat was tender with a thick, slighty salty crust.

“I read as many books and watched as many videos as I could before even daring to step toward the smoker,” Drach said. “I’m learning that everything takes a lot of patience.”

Carmen’s Table plans to source meat from local butchers, said Drach, who wants to branch out to sausages, ribs, and skirt steak as he hones his pit master chops. As for sauces, customers can choose from guava barbecue sauce, as well as roasted garlic, hot honey, and lemon pepper varieties.

Already, Roselyn Gonzalez said, the neighborhood is betting on Drach. In the week leading up to opening, she’s been handing out samples to nosy passersby. One woman even called it the “best pork she’s ever had,” Roselyn Gonzalez boasted.

“I feel like I found my tribe,” she said.

Carmen’s Table, 200 E. Evesham Rd., Glendora, N.J., opens Friday, March 27. Hours: 11 a.m. - 9:30 p.m. Wednesday through Sunday.