Delicias El Paisa Brings Medellín To Hamden

Juliette Lao Photos.

Shimmering crystal-shaped stars hung on top of the glossy black marble counter and the display of baby blue, orange, and lime green sweets. From the entrance to the side door, people lined up from all different locations, conversation rising and falling around the entrancing, dessert-filled glass cases. They were ready to eat dishes made straight from Columbia.

Welcome to Delicias El Paisa, a young Colombian restaurant and bakery located at 1774 Dixwell Ave. in Hamden. After a year and a half in business, the restaurant is growing its mission to feed the community with native Colombian fare. Its secret lies with chefs and owners Jhovany Pereañaz Betancor and his brother Alex Pereañez, who hail from Colombia’s capital city of Medellín.

“It’s been good running and opening a restaurant here in Hamden,” Pereañaz Betancor said. For him, the restaurant is part of his “drive to go further and to move towards a better lifestyle in this economy,” the same thing that brought him to the United States in 2011.

The new restaurant, which both brothers see as a labor of love, comes out of years of experience in the restaurant industry. After working in several restaurants after immigrating to the U.S., Pereañaz Betancor worked alongside Pereañez at Donde El Paisa Restaurant, located on Foxon Road in East Haven. He grew to love the kitchen, while learning and creating his favorite dishes with his brother.

By last year, Pereañaz Betancor knew he wanted to run his own restaurant, and then found the retail space in Hamden to do it. The title is meant to pay homage to both of them: El paisa is a nod to the old, and Delicias to the new.

This way they could connect both restaurants, and still give them both their own individuality (Donde el Paisa is still operating in East Haven), they said. Hamden seemed like the right place to expand, they added: while the town has a growing number of Latin restaurants, there were no Colombian restaurants or bakeries.

Pereañaz Betancor also prepares each dish with his home in mind, as a way of preserving Colombian heritage and culture through food. There are, for instance, the “Platos de Mi Pueblo,” including a sampler with deep fried pork, sausage, beef, egg, rice, beans, fried plantain, and avocado. There’s “Tostón Con Todo,” with fried green plantains smothered in pork, guacamole, grilled beef, cheese, and sauce. 

Or the “Bandeja paisa,” which contains deep fried pork, sausage, beef, egg, rice, beans, fried plantain, and avocado. Sometimes, it is also served with a sweet corn cake called an arepa.

While he uses an arsenal of well-loved recipes and seasonings for every dish and baked good, Pereañaz Betancor said he also believes it is important to keep learning new seasonings and new ways to cook.

“I hope other people can get to know the restaurant, and enjoy the food,” he said. “I always wanted people to come, and leave happy they had come.”

Along with learning from customers and people in town, the brothers strive to improve, and grow both in and outside of the kitchen. That’s the case with beta testing favorite family dishes, they said: it's why the “Bandeja Paisa” is so beloved by many customers who come to visit.

When customers ask, Pereañaz Betancor recommends trying the soup of the day, which changes daily, la mojarra frita (fried fish), and the restaurant's desserts. Since the brothers always wanted to bring a Colombian bakery to Hamden, they sell a variety of cheese-filled goods like their salty and savory Pandebono to a bronze Bunuelo filled with melting cheese. They are very proud, they said, to have their heritage displayed through their foods.

On a recent Saturday, the restaurant welcomed Erick Gonzalez, who is currently studying computer science at Southern Connecticut State University (SCSU). After a long day of exams, Gonzalez stopped by to order his favorite afternoon dish, a golden crescent shaped empanada, with a cup of mango juice on the side.

This is not the first time he stopped by to grab a dish. Thankfully for his parents, who are also regular customers, brought the restaurant to his attention as a new, very delicious way to de-stress.

That was also true for Emilia Paradez, who was visiting from Ecuador to see her brother. Although he lives in Bridgeport, the two made the trip to Hamden after he heard about it on a construction job. Smiling, Paradez detailed a meal of rice with beans and soup, beef tripe, and chicken wings drizzled with barbecue sauce.

Before leaving, Paradez noted how welcoming and attentive everyone was when she walked in. It means, she said with a smile, that it definitely won’t be her last time in the space.

Juliette Lao is a 2023 graduate of the Arts Council’s Youth Arts Journalism Initiative (YAJI), for which she still writes in her free time. She is a graduate of New Haven Academy and now a freshman at the University of Connecticut.