Casa Borinqueña’s Restaurant

Casa Borinqueña is a vegan Puerto Rican pop-up/ catering business, soon to have a brick-and-mortar. We are a family business established in 2018. We started off doing pop-ups events and catering until the pandemic took a toll on our business. This was a very difficult time for our business, but we took it in stride and remained optimistic.

During the pandemic Chef Lulu decided to make some life changes for health and ethical reasons and felt that her business should also represent her belief. Casa Borinqueña became a vegan business.

We wanted our menu to focus on good food that is approachable to both vegans and people who are not plant-based.

We want to introduce plant-based and healthy meals to people without compromising taste which is one of our main goals with Casa Borinqueña. By us making vegan meals approachable to everyone, we can spread healthy eating habits throughout our communities.

Because we are such a small business, our capital is very limited and obtaining loans can be extremely difficult. We decided to start a GoFundMe to cover the unexpected cost, we did not anticipate with opening our restaurant.

With your donation, you will help us build our permanent location in Oakland.

We are looking for your support to continue building out the interior and new hood that needs to be replaced.

Our goal is to make our food accessible to everyone, this is why we will be doing “Pay what you can Tuesdays”, during a certain time period we will open our doors to anyone who can or can’t afford a meal. No one will be turned away. This is our way of giving back to the community.

As some of you may not know Casa Borinqueña is the first vegan Puerto Rican restaurant in the contiguous United States.

We look forward to spreading our recipes and culture to as many people as possible. In Puerto Rico, hospitality and service are always a part of our culture. We strive to make every person who tries our food a believer in plant-based foods.

Your support would do more than just help open a brick and mortar; it would be the stepping stone to helping our communities. We plan to employ those who need it the most, pay competitively, and become a positive staple in the Oakland community.

Once we have access to a bigger and stable kitchen, our goal is to partner with organizations that feed the community, we plan on making sure our food does not go to waste and will partner with a local organization that can benefit from our surplus food.

Our goal is to make vegan alternatives accessible to all people. Veganism represents kindness, love, and health. It should not be reserved for only those who can afford it. We also promise to help other entrepreneurs with their start-ups in order to pay forward what has been given to us.

Let’s do some good together! We appreciate you all and hope you find this cause worthy of donating to.