When Turtle Leaf Cafe closed in 2025 after 10 years in business at 315 E. Water St. in Elmira, the prime downtown location didn’t stay vacant for long.
A new eatery, Little Dominicana Restaurant, opened at that site Friday, March 13, offering local residents a taste of authentic Dominican food.
Owner Rosse Linares is quite familiar with the cuisine. While she grew up in Pennsylvania, her family is from the Dominican Republic, and she has visited her ancestral homeland on several occasions, most recently in January.
What she didn’t have was experience running a restaurant, but she was looking for a change, both in location and in careers.
Linares also likes to eat and knows how to prepare Dominican food, so putting her skills to work in a new business to share those treats with other people was a natural progression, she said.
“I lived in Harrisburg, Pennsylvania before. My brother-in-law lived here (in Elmira),” Linares said. “I wanted something different. This is my first time in the restaurant business. I had a hair salon in Harrisburg.”
Traditional Dominican food is a blend of Spanish, African and Taino (indigenous) influences, centered primarily around rice, beans, plantains and meats.
Linares has a handful of helpers, but she does much of the preparation and cooking herself.
“It’s all homemade, all made fresh,” said Linares, who said early customer response has been good, adding the restaurant is still a work in progress.
“We’re on DoorDash. We’ll be on Uber Eats soon,” she said. “We had to do a lot of remodeling. We still have a few things to do. We’re doing it little by little.”
Little Dominicana Restaurant is open for breakfast, lunch and dinner Monday through Saturday, and is closed Sunday. Dine-in and takeout options are available.
For more information, call 607-215-0990.
This article originally appeared on Elmira Star-Gazette: New downtown Elmira restaurant offers a taste of Dominican fare
Reporting by Jeff Murray, Elmira Star-Gazette / Elmira Star-Gazette
USA TODAY Network via Reuters Connect
