It was the fall of 2023 when a good customer of Chef Rafael Palomino’s Sonora restaurant shared that his wife had died. Rather than a funeral, she wanted a party overlooking the water at sunset.
Inspired, Palomino bought a little school bus and converted it into a bistro kitchen with a bar on one side — a food truck version of his Port Chester restaurant serving modern Latin cuisine spanning the Latin Americas, including Palomino’s roots in Bogota, Colombia, plus Spain.
When rain broke out at the event, Palomino provided ponchos, and attendees partied on at the memorial. “He said, ‘Thank you: People will remember my wife for the rest of my life.’ I was so touched,” says Palomino.
Then, when Palomino’s daughter got married, it hit home how much of a value his food truck could be, especially to budget-conscious younger generations. Palomino could offer his fine restaurant fare at wholesale prices and still earn enough to make it worthwhile.
Named La Señora Catering (sonorarestaurant.net/about-3), the truck can dish up anything from Colombian arepas de choclo and Peruvian quinoa empanadas with roasted eggplant, goat cheese, and chocolate vinaigrette, to lobster rolls and his signature seafood paella redolent with shrimp, clams, mussels, chorizo, and saffron rice with sofrito sauce. Think of mingling with mango mojitos and tacos tucked with brisket, crispy cod, fluffy falafel, or carne asada. Beyond the magic of mojitos, the mobile bar can concoct blood-orange margaritas, tamarillo caipirinhas, hibiscus mezcalitas, and pumpkin-cinnamon sangria.
“The idea is to embrace what customers want,” says the owner of the Palomino Group’s restaurants in New York, Connecticut, and Pennsylvania. “I’ve had Sonora for 24 years, and you must keep reinventing yourself. When you have that mindset, people keep coming back.”
“The idea is to embrace what customers want.”
— Rafael Palomino
Besides weddings, memorial services, and backyard parties in Westchester and Connecticut, the food truck has catered for as many as 300 guests at Sarah Lawrence College in Bronxville and The Capitol Theatre in Port Chester.
“The reason why this works is you don’t want to just be sitting down,” Palomino says. “You want to move around, connect with others.”
Related: The Paella at These Westchester Restaurants Is Top-Notch
