‘Lines out the door.’ Take a look inside Olympia’s popular new Cuban restaurant
Kirsten Herrera-Root and her husband, Rich Root, dreamed of opening a café for over two decades. About two years ago, they moved back to Olympia and decided to make their dream into a reality.
“It felt like it was either now or never,” Herrera-Root, 51, said.
Root, 48, spotted a vacant building on the corner of Capitol Way South and Union Avenue soon after and they signed a lease the next year. In April, they opened Mi Luna Cuban Café, the city’s first family-owned Cuban restaurant.
“The reception was so much more than we anticipated,” Herrera-Root said. “It was just lines out the door. We almost ran out of food multiple times because Cuban food takes days. You can’t just do things on the spot.”
She said the restaurant has stayed busy since then. The lunch time scene is fast-casual and gets the liveliest around noon. Those who walk in for lunch are invited to order at the counter and sit wherever they like. For dinner, the restaurant offers full service and recommends reservations.
At all times, the aroma of coffee, pastries, beans, rice and marinated pork floats through the thoughtfully decorated building. Most of the establishment is painted white but blue accents, warm wood tones and light from large windows create an inviting environment.
Herrera-Root, who owns a majority of the business, said she and her husband designed the restaurant themselves with help from friends.
They incorporated elements such as arches, salvaged glass and reclaimed church pews. There are even historical photos of businesses that previously occupied the building.
“Cuba has so much history and culture that there’s layers of it from different time periods,” Root said. “I feel like, in a way, we got to reflect a little bit of that in this building. So that means a lot to me.”
At a center pillar, there’s a framed drawing of the building with clippings of old articles from The Olympian layered on top. The clippings provide vignettes into the past of the Herrera family.
Herrera-Root said her family left Cuba in the early 1960s and settled in Olympia.
“Growing up here, with the phone books, we knew every Herrera except one,” Herrera-Root said. “Herrera is like Smith, it’s a super common name, but we were like, ‘Oh, that’s my grandpa, that’s my uncle, that’s my dad. …’”
That family legacy caries on at Mi Luna. Josiah Root, the 23-year-old son of Herrera-Root and Root, owns a minority stake in the business. Daughters Faith Aguilar, 26, and Esther Root, 19, also work in the restaurant.
Root, who’s also from Olympia, said staff have gotten to know some regulars in the past few months. Those who come from Caribbean cultures have told them that the food tastes like home.
“That’s probably our favorite because that’s when we feel like we’re hitting that bulls eye that we had dreamed of,” Root said.
What’s on the menu?
The menu features an assortment of foods that are mostly based on old family recipes. At the top of the menu are small, puffed pastries called pastelitos. These may be filled with beef, guava, guava and cheese or coconut.
Of course, there’s a classic Cuban sandwich made with roasted pork, layers of ham, Swiss cheese, mustard, pickles and Cuban bread.
Herrera-Root said the sandwich and their two main entrees have proven popular with customers.
The first entrée is called Lechón. It’s a mojo-marinated, slow roasted pork shoulder prepared with fresh citrus, garlic and cumin. It’s served with rice, black beans and house-made pineapple salsa.
The second entrée is Ropa Vieja, a rich and savory Cuban dish that features tender, shredded steak that’s simmered in a tomato and white wine sauce. It also comes with mild peppers, garlic, olives, capers, rice and beans.
Keen observers may notice that the menu offers Dominican beans and a specials menu includes a dish with Dominican-inspired savory coconut sauce.
Herrera-Root said her family chose to include those items because they spent 2006-2013 living in the Dominican Republic. They returned to Olympia for a few years and then lived in Tacoma for five years before finally settling down in Olympia two years ago.
She said they considered opening their restaurant in Tacoma but ultimately decided to bring Cuban food to their hometown.
“I grew up in Olympia and there was never any Cuban food here,” Herrera-Root said. “We would either have to go up to Seattle to try to find something or go down to Portland.”
Sharing culture through food
Executive Chef Miriam-Xiomara Padilla, 32, met Herrera-Root while they both worked at Gardner’s, a longtime seafood restaurant near Percival Landing Park.
She said Herrera-Root first approached her to head up the kitchen at Mi Luna last summer and she agreed several months later. They took a trip to Miami to so she could familiarize herself with authentic Cuban cuisine.
“I’m not Cuban, but I come from Spanish and Mexican descent, and Spanish is very similar to Cuban,” Padilla said. “Miami helped a lot with just knowing more about the history, the migration of Cubans coming to the U.S., and all that.”
Padilla, who graduated from the culinary arts program at South Puget Sound Community College, said it’s been a privilege to work as the head chef at Mi Luna, especially as a woman of color in a male-dominated field.
“For them to offer me the position to be able to honor their family through the food that I’m cooking and training others to cook, that’s pretty meaningful to me,” Padilla said.
The Ropa Vieja is her favorite, Padilla said. She described the food on offer as very homey and satisfying without feeling heavy.
“They’re simple, but complex,” Padilla said of the recipes. “Simple in the sense that the ingredients are straightforward, but complex in the sense that we have to plan very carefully to make sure that we have the dishes available.”
She said it takes about 48 hours to marinate their pork and then from there it cooks for another 12 hours.
The mirepoix, or foundation, for Cuban food is a sofrito with onion, pepper and garlic, Padilla said. For comparison, she said the base for French cuisine is typically carrot, onion and celery.
Olympia needs more culturally diverse places to eat, Padilla said, and Mi Luna fills some of that need.
“Being born and raised in LA, I was exposed to a very diverse group of foods,” Padilla said. “I think that’s part of the reason why this place has gotten so much momentum in the last few months. I think people are wanting to try different foods.”
Herrera-Root said key goals for her business include building community and celebrating diversity as well as supporting immigrants and refugees.
“The story would be so different if we hadn’t been welcomed to the United States and this community…” Herrera-Root said. “My story, my family’s story, is so important to me. We’re not just trying to be this cool new restaurant; we are trying to share part of our culture.”
This story was originally published July 27, 2025 at 5:00 AM.
