Long live the mountain of fries. This Westchester Cuban restaurant won’t close after all.
Fans of Río Cristal Cuban restaurant came from far and wide when they read that the Westchester restaurant would be closing after 46 years.
They came from Naples and Ocala, one from as far as Georgia, to get one last taste of Río Cristal’s signature thin Palomilla steak covered in a mountain of crispy French fries before it closed Aug. 31. A line stretched down the block the day the news broke, and for several days after, the restaurant sold out of steaks.
It was a show of support capable of changing minds.
After a flood of customer support, the late owner’s daughter bought the restaurant from her older brother and will continue to run it for a new generation of diners.
Helping matters, Miami-Dade County will allow restaurants to reopen inside dining rooms up to 50 percent capacity starting Aug. 31, a move the new owner, Ely Acosta, 40, said will help supplement the takeout and delivery that wasn’t making ends meet.
“The way the community came out to support us was absolutely amazing,” said Acosta. “We couldn’t just let it go.”
It wasn’t an easy decision, she said. Acosta, who has worked in the mortgage industry for more than 20 years but helped at the restaurant occasionally, is changing careers to make the new restaurant a success. Her older brother, Jose Manuel, 70, and her mother, Teresita, will retire but pitch in to help her transition.
The late owner Pepe Acosta founded Río Cristal, at 9872 SW 40th St., in 1974 as Cubans and their children migrated from Little Havana to the western suburbs. There, they founded a restaurant similar to the one that had made Acosta famous, the original Lila’s, with the same creamy flan and a new Cuban steak frites that Pepe Acosta loved to make.
Diners the last few weeks shared with Acosta pictures of themselves as children as they brought their own children to say goodbye. Some even offered to buy the restaurant.
“It was constant. People saying, ‘Please don’t close,’” she said.
For the first time, Acosta seriously considered taking over the family business. Just weeks after she had put a down payment on a new Tesla, a treat for herself, she pulled back the money and bought the restaurant instead.
She expects a learning curve, but she says she has a staff that has been with the restaurant for decades to help her keep it going. Even her children, who hadn’t envisioned themselves in the restaurant business, are now thinking of one day continuing the family legacy, she said.
“I’ll be there every day now. I’ll probably sleep there,” Acosta said. “It’s almost like God put it in my heart that I had to do something.”
This story was originally published August 28, 2020 at 6:00 AM.
