Selvin’s Latin Cuisine at 2205 North Central Expressway, Suite 180 is now open for breakfast, lunch and dinner. The restaurant is serving up a mix of Guatemalan and Salvadoran fare along with a few Tex-Mex items. Owner Selvin Flores hopes to carve out his niche by offering a menu that is different from others in the area.
“My ultimate goal is to introduce people to authentic Guatemalan cuisine,” he says. “We also have the other two cuisines that are better known around here (Salvadoran and Tex-Mex) so there’s a little bit of something to please everyone.”
To achieve that authentic flavor, Flores imports local spices from Guatemala. He proudly points out that everything on the menu, from the aguas frescas to all the entrees, is made from scratch.
Among the menu items that have proven popular so far is pepian, or Mayan stew. It’s a smokey dish that dates back hundreds of years. At Selvin’s, it is made with chicken. Roasted pumpkin seeds and sesame seeds are blended with four different chilies to create a unique flavor.
For breakfast, the desayuno Chapin (Guatemalan Breakfast) and desayuno Salvadoreño (Salvadoran Breakfast) have also been big hits. The Guatemalan breakfast features eggs topped with chirmol, a homemade Guatemalan sweet sauce. It is served with black refried beans, queso fresco and crema.
The Salvadorian breakfast is a bean and cheese pupusa topped with two fried eggs and red salsa. It is also served with black refired beans, queso fresco and crema.
This is Flores’ first solo restaurant venture. However, he is no stranger to the business. He’s actually been working in restaurants since he was 14 years old. He started off washing dishes at Chocolate Angel Café & Tea Room. He waited tables, bussed tables, and worked his way up to managing multiple locations. Eventually, he became a co-owner of the Plano location. Now he is ready to venture off on his own.
Flores was born in Guatemala but moved to Richardson when he was just seven years old. His wife Mary, whose family hails from El Salvador, also works at Selvin’s. Armed with their family’s recipes, they hope to bring Plano diners an authentic Latin American experience they can’t get anywhere else.
“I like to say it’s authentic Guatemalan and Salvadoran cuisine with a modern twist,” Flores says.
