CLEVELAND, Ohio (WOIO) – A small business in the Detroit-Shoreway is ready for this year’s Puerto Rican festival, representing the island’s street cuisine with pinchos.

“We know many more people are going to get to know us,” said Lidarys Maldonado, co-founder of Wakky’s TC Pinchos. “And they’re going to enjoy our food, we’re really excited.”

Pinchos are chicken skewers commonly sold by street vendors on the Island of Enchantment.

Maldonado and her team plan to cook as many as 2,000 of them for this weekend’s Puerto Rican Parade and Festival in the city’s West Side.

“Any person that lives in Puerto Rico knows that you can find a pincho stand on almost every corner,” Maldonado said.

Maldonado and her husband, Rey Ortiz, opened Wakky’s TC Pinchos back in 2021. They’ve faced a challenging uphill battle, slowly gathering the funds needed to open their first location on Lorain Avenue.

But where many people would give up, the skewer-making grill masters are still standing, thanks in part to Cleveland’s Latino community.

Maldonado explained that “every weekend we get flooded with messages asking if we have food available or if we’re catering. We’re never going to run out of motivation.”

Now, they’re ready to give back to the community by serving up meals at a festival that makes Maldonado proud of her roots.

“It’s flags everywhere, people dressed in their traditional attire, it’s overwhelming,” she said.

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