A message on their Facebook page has announced that Coqui’s Café, which last year took over the locally-famous Little Chef diner space at 147 E. Market St. in New Albany, will be closing that location and taking a break from their business as the owners search for a new, larger space for their popular restaurant.
The 10-seat red-and-white Little Chef building has been around since 1957, and has had several restaurant identities over the years. Stephanie and Elvin Torres took it over in 2015 for Coqui’s Café, serving “Southern favorites infused with a Latin flair.” She has roots in the American South, and he is Puerto Rican; their menu offered pancakes and omelets for breakfast, and for lunch, burgers, sandwiches and “specialties” such as the medianoche (Puerto Rican-style pulled pork, ham and Swiss cheese on a hoagie roll); The Thing (a hamburger topped with tostones–plantains–and cheese; and the Canoe (a whole plantain split, deep-fried and topped with picadillo and melted mozzarella).
The Facebook post notes that another restaurant will be taking over the Little Chef space in the near future, and that the Torreses hope to open Coqui’s again in a larger sit-down space by the spring.
