A Michigan restaurant is opening its first out-of-state location in New York this month, bearing Cuban burgers and tropical milkshakes. Frita Batidos is opening in Williamsburg at 334 Kent Avenue, at South Fourth Street, on Wednesday, October 29.
Chef and owner Eve Aronoff Fernandez opened Frita Batidos in Ann Arbor in 2010 and eventually expanded into Detroit in 2019. Before this, she ran the since-closed French restaurant Eve, also in Detroit.
New York’s Cuban food scene is small but includes a bunch of longstanding restaurants, such as Guantanamera and Victor’s Cafe, both in Midtown West, along with a handful of Cuban Chinese places such as La Caridad 72, the revamp of shuttered legacy restaurant La Caridad 78. However, there doesn’t seem to be a destination going all-in on fritas until now.
Fritas are Cuban burgers with shoestring fries on soft buns; the restaurant will offer spiced patties for double like chorizo, black bean, and ground fluke ($15 for single patties, $18). And then, batidos, Cuban milkshakes, which will include $7 flavors like coconut cream, hibiscus, and passionfruit; $8 chocolate and cajeta; and a mango-crushed ice-ice cream combination called the Lighter Batido ($7) with an optional dark rum shot for a $2.50 add-on.
Diners can order plantains solo ($8) or loaded with beans ($9.50 to $150, or the Best Snack Ever ($10): layers of coconut-ginger rice, black beans, melted Muenster, and cilantro-lime salsa. Desserts include churros ($5) and cinnamon sugar plantains ($6). The drink menu lists juices, plus cocktails like margaritas ($14), coladas ($15), and the pisco hibiscus lemonade ($15).
The 70-seat counter- and table-service space, designed by architect Neal Robinson, who worked on the Ann Arbor and Detroit locations, includes communal picnic tables and a mural by graffiti artist FEL3000ft. The restaurant is shooting for a 20-seat outdoor area and a paleta cart after opening.