This Panamanian-Caribbean Restaurant Made A Name For Itself In LA. Now, It's Moving To Long Beach

LONG BEACH, CA — Each dish Rogelio Squires cooks is a reflection his grandfather.

The restaurateur grew up in Panama, where he spent hours in the kitchen watching the family patriarch cooking flavorful dishes every day and selling them to workers at the Panama Canal to make ends meet.

It was hard work, Squires recalls about his grandfather's job. But it was also a labor of love — a passion that would eventually turn into the driving force of a Panamanian-Caribbean fusion restaurant thousands of miles away from where it all started.

Squires' restaurant, Caribbean Soul Kitchen LA, which is currently located at 5354 Wilshire Blvd., offers the same dishes he grew up watching his grandfather cook as a young boy in Panama. Now, those flavors, that passion and legacy will be heading down to Long Beach, where the couple is looking to expand its base.

"Anything that has to do with this restaurant, first and foremost, is because of Alfred Barnett," Squires said. "Everything he instilled in me as a youth, I didn't realize he was instilling in me until later in life."

“There would be no restaurant if it weren't for him.”

Alfred Barnett

Alfred Barnett, Squires' grandfather, moved from Jamaica to Panama in search of a better life for his family. There, he became a chef, cooking for workers at the Panama Canal, Squires.

"Day in, day out, he would just be cooking," Squires recalls. "For him, it really was about flavor, good-tasting food, having good food, not just doing it just to make money."

Although cooking was a second career option for Barnett, he gave it his all, putting his love in each dish he sold, Squires said. Through that hard work and dedication, he thrived, supporting a large family and purchasing two homes in Panama, which Squires said was "unheard of" at the time.

During those days, a nine-year-old Squires begged his grandfather for certain dishes. Instead, Barnett handed Squires his old cookbook that he'd used in culinary school.

There were no measurements or pictures, just ingredients, Squires said.

Still, Squires said he gave it a shot and soon made a one-egg chocolate cake in the toaster oven. He didn't know it at the time, but that's where it would all start for Squires.

"It's crazy because his memory is so spot on with some of those recipes," Squires' wife, Mercedes, said about her husband. "He really shocks himself that he is nailing some of those childhood memories that he has."

A Cultural Fusion

Due to Panama's geographical location and history, the cuisine is "two sides of the same coin," Squires said.

There's Hispanic food brought on by colonization, and Afro-Panamanian food developed as a result of the slave trade and immigration from the West Indies during the construction of the Panama Canal. Both, however, make up the flavors that are well known in Panamanian cuisine today.

Some of those dishes, which Squires makes at Caribbean Soul Kitchen LA, include ropa vieja a shredded beef plate served on a bed of coconut rice, pargo frito (whole fried snapper), arroz con pollo, (rice with chicken) and sancocho, a hearty stew with corn, lamb, chicken, yuca (white yam) and a variety of other vegetables.

Since Caribbean Soul Kitchen LA ties in his grandfather's Jamaican heritage, Squires also cooks dishes such as oxtails, jerk chicken, jerk macaroni and cheese and Alfred's potato salad

"I'm carrying all that, all of his flavors," Squires said. "Some of the best food that I had was from him."

Origins

Squires was cooking at home one day during the COVID pandemic in 2020, when Mercedes had the idea to make a post on Facebook asking whether anyone wanted to try some arroz con pollo (rice with chicken) and shrimp skewers.

Within 20 minutes of posting, 38 people had reached out to ask if they could grab an order, Mercedes recalled.

"When that happened, I was dumbfounded," Mercedes said. It was a whirlwind."

Before they knew it, the couple was setting up a pop-up shop in Inglewood. From there, the demand for them only grew. While setting up shop in Liemert Park, the couple said they noticed their clientele started to grow steadily.

They also found out they were the only Panamanian restaurant on the West Coast at the time, according to Mercedes. By mid-2021, the couple decided it was time to look into opening up a brick-and-mortar. More than that, opening up a place where people could gather socially and introduce the masses to the same flavors Squires grew up with.

"We were out of our league," Mercedes recalled thinking at the time. "We didn't know what we were doing, but we knew that a brick-and-mortar would be our next step."

Nestled along Wilshire Boulevard, Caribbean Soul Kitchen LA is a small restaurant with roughly 40 seats. It's grown in popularity so much, Mercedes said, that they've had to turn people away because there's no space for them inside the restaurant.

After four years, Squires and Mercedes are betting on themselves once more. They'll be leaving the location on Wilshire and moving to Long Beach soon, with the hopes of opening a larger brick-and-mortar location along Pine Avenue, adding more diversity to the city.

"It's been crazy to see our growth in four years and now where we are today," Mercedes Squires said. "We have something really special."

The new location will seat nearly 150 people and sits at 3,000 square feet. They expect to be open by December, but need the community's help to get them there.

The couple started a GoFundMe to help them cover startup costs such as rewiring and electrical work, new signage, refrigeration, new upholstery, glassware and dishes. A beer and wine bar, live entertainment and a vibrant cultural experience will be fixed features at the new Long Beach location, according to the couple.

"We just felt like the beach area would be very complementary," Mercedes said. "For a number of reasons, Long Beach chose us."

Legacy

The only regret Squires has is that he didn't start a restaurant sooner.

With the upcoming move, Squires hopes to not only bring his grandfather's flavors and love for cooking to Long Beach but also leave behind his own legacy.

Like his grandfather, Squires is meticulous. Each dish has to be up to par or "the full gambit," Squires said.

First is the smell, Squires said. It has to smell appetizing. Next is the appearance, which has to look appealing, he said. Next is the taste, which has to leave the customer satisfied.

"I just want people to come and enjoy the food, enjoy everything, and that's my main goal," Squires said. "As long as you're enjoying the food, then I'm okay with it. If you're not, then I do ask why and try to figure out what we can do going forward."

When cooking and working on his dishes, Squires says he often looks at a photo of his grandfather that hangs on the wall. He says having that photo nearby feels almost as if he can still talk to him. In the way, it helps him figure out recipes or channel how his grandfather would navigate a dish.

"I wish I would actually have done more with him and picked his brain about more things," Squires said. "I miss and wish that he was still around to actually help and witness and advise and see what's happening."

Although Barnett is no longer alive, his spirit, memories and love for cooking live on through Squires and his children — Chelsea, Cherish and Essence. Like their great-grandfather and their father, they've each gravitated toward culinary work.

Some cook, others bake, but they all have taken a little something from their experiences growing up around their father, just like Squires did with his grandfather.

"At this point, I'm truly convinced it's something in their blood," Squires said. "My grandfather, he would be so happy, he would be ecstatic. There are no words for the joy I think he would feel."

Caribbean Soul Kitchen LA has raised $610 out of its $3,500 goal. To donate and support the restaurant's move to Long Beach, click here.