Peggi Cruz, the owner and head chef of Cha’Firo, sells vegan, vegetarian, and traditional Puerto Rican cuisine, including vegan pasteles, honey bread, rice and beans, and butter chicken. (Photo by Lee Chilcote)
Cha’Firo, a restaurant that serves traditional, vegan and vegetarian Puerto Rican food at 2886 W. 25th St., has found success in Clark-Fulton, said owner Peggi Cruz, and she hopes to expand into the CentroVilla25 marketplace when it opens officially in summer 2024.
The dine-in restaurant currently does catering, pop-up events, and serves customers from Clark-Fulton, said Cruz, who grew up in the neighborhood. Next year, she plans to move Cha’Firo back to a solely catering business. Additionally, she hopes to open a new restaurant called Quarter Girl in CentroVilla25 and is waiting to hear back if her business will be part of it.
Cha’Firo provides a variety of traditional Puerto Rican cuisine with a vegan and vegetarian twist, including vegan pasteles, honey bread, rice and beans, and butter chicken.
Cruz, the head chef of Cha’Firo, said the idea for the business came to her while she attended culinary school at Cuyahoga Community College from 2007-2011. She officially created Cha’Firo in 2016. The restaurant was born out of her mother’s traditional Puerto Rican recipes and what Cruz called a lack of accessibility for vegan and vegetarian food in Puerto Rican cuisine.
“I cleaned them up,” Cruz said. “Because Puerto Rican food tends to have pork and meat, I cleaned it all up, and I specialize in vegan and vegetarian friendly Puerto Rican cuisine.”
Cruz said that community and unity was part of her vision when she decided to blend traditional recipes with vegan and vegetarian food at Cha’Firo.
“My goal was to get everybody to sit back at one table,” she said. “Meat-eater, a pescatarian, a vegan, a vegetarian, we can all still sit here and get something from Cha’Firo restaurant.”
Part of what made Cruz turn to vegan and vegetarian friendly food options was her own son, she said. Cruz said that as a teenager, her son became a vegetarian, and she had to adapt her mother’s recipes to be vegetarian as well.
Cruz was born to two parents from Puerto Rico who moved to New York before she was born. Shortly after her birth, Cruz said her parents made Clark-Fulton their home. Her family has lived there and also in Riverview public housing in Ohio City for decades. The restaurant got its name from Cruz’s brother, Chafiro, who tragically died at the age of fifteen in 1970. Cruz named her restaurant to honor him.
Cruz said she has been cooking all her life.
“Food’s been my life,” she said. “I’d been selling food out of my house well before I started going to college. That’s how I paid bills. With my kids, you’ve got to work.”
After getting her degree from Cuyahoga Community College, Cruz worked at multiple places in the culinary field before she founded Cha’Firo. She worked under Michael Symon at Lola Bistro, at the Wolstein Center, and at Cleveland Chop House, among other places.
After securing a second degree in food and beverage management in 2018, Cruz said she decided to switch Cha’Firo’s business model from just catering to eat-in as well. The restaurant has been in its location on West 25th Street since 2022. The majority of her business still comes from online orders. Cha’Firo has a presence on Instagram and Facebook.
Because she grew up in Clark-Fulton, Cruz said she has always strived to help the community through Cha’Firo. “Giving to the youth and giving back to my community are the main things that keep me going and keep me happy,” she said. “I’m excited about Cleveland.”
In addition to owning and operating Cha’Firo, Cruz said she has taught culinary classes for children in the restaurant.
“I teach them culinary arts, basic knife-cuts, and how to feed your family on a budget,” she said. “I’ve taught about four or five classes since I’ve been here, and they run about four weeks.”
Cha’Firo owner Peggi Cruz plans to shift the restaurant back to a catering business, and she hopes to open a new restaurant called Quarter Girl at the upcoming CentroVilla25 marketplace. In the background is a painting of her mother completed by a friend. (Photo by Lee Chilcote)
Cruz said she has plans to teach culinary classes in Cleveland’s schools as well, towards the end of this year.
Construction on CentroVilla25 comes amid rapid urban development in other Cleveland neighborhoods, including Ohio City to the north, and a huge infusion of investment dollars in Clark-Fulton, especially in and around the new MetroHealth hospital on W. 25th St. Leaders here hope that CentroVilla25 gives Latino business owners a chance to be part of the revitalization of the area, and helps to make it a destination for Hispanic culture.
Quarter Girl, Cruz said, with the tagline “just the girl from the bricks” in a nod to her background partially growing up in public housing, will serve a mix of Cleveland and Puerto Rican street food, and all prices will end in 25 cents. She said her vision for Quarter Girl is for it to expand and become a franchise due to its unique blend of Cleveland and Puerto Rican cuisine.
“It’s Cleveland and Puerto Rican street-food – who doesn’t want that?” Cruz said of the grab-and-go menu, which will feature Puerto Rican items such as empanadas as well as Cleveland street food items like Polish boys. There will be vegan and vegetarian options for everything, and the menu will be about 75% vegetarian.
Cruz also has several other food concepts she is exploring, and hopes CentroVilla25 will serve as a launchpad for future growth. “I can’t wait to open the space,” she said. “And be there and be an advocate. And not only that, but to be a leader in the community for the people who come behind me. For people who want to open businesses and don’t know where to start.”
CentroVilla25 is under construction at 3140 W. 25th St. even as the Hispanic Business Center, the group spearheading the project, continues to fundraise for the project. The Land reached out to the HBC for comment but they were unavailable. Cruz said she looks forward to hopefully being part of CentroVilla25 when it opens next year.
“I’m honored to be a part of it,” she said. “It’s been years that we’ve been fighting for something for us. Years and years and years, and nobody would fund it. It takes money to do these things. No one was thinking about our community. But we got it now.”
Peggi Cruz, chef and owner of Cha’Firo, can be reached on Instagram and Facebook or by calling or texting (216) 701-6535. Read The Land’s previous coverage of CentroVilla25 here and here.
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