Guajiro
(gwa-HEE-ro)
Cuban Comfort Food. Family Recipes. Asheville Made.
Why the Name Guajiro?
A guajiro is a Cuban farmer or person from the Cuban countryside.
We chose the name to honor Chris’ grandmother, Rosa Morejón Montenegro and his great-grandfather, Serafín Morejón.
Serafin was a guajiro, born and raised in La Puntilla, a farm area owned and passed down by generations of family members. La Puntilla was in La Provincia Las Villas (now Cienfuegos), an area very similar to the Everglades in Florida. He grew sugarcane, which he sold to the sugar mills. The mill would make sugar from the sugarcane juice and paper from the dried out crop that was left over. He also grew mango, pineapples, guanabana, guayaba, limes, and corn. They had cows for milk, and ox to pull the sugarcane carts. They also had chickens, roosters, and turkeys roaming the farm.
And there was always food. Big family meals were part of everyday life at La Puntilla.
That tradition traveled from Cuba to Miami, was carried on by Rosa “Nana:, and eventually found its way to Asheville.
Guajiro is our way of keeping that story alive.
Why Cuban Comfort Food?
For Chris, Guajiro started long before there was a restaurant.
A second generation Cuban-American, Chris dreamed of opening a Cuban restaurant from the time he was seven years old. He grew up listening to his grandmother, “Nana”, tell stories about life in Cuba, and her father’s farm in Las Villas. More importantly, Chris grew up in the kitchen beside her. Chris and Nana have cooked countless everyday Cuban meals together using recipes passed down through generations of aunts, uncles, mothers, fathers, grandmothers, and grandfathers — always finished with el toque de Nana, Nana’s special touch.
Those meals weren’t fancy, they were the food you ate around the family table: slow-cooked meats, black beans, rice, plantains, Cuban sandwiches, cafecito, and recipes made from memory rather than measuring cups. That is what we mean when we say Cuban comfort food.
Chris began working in a Cuban restaurant while still in high school, spending afternoons, weekends, and summers learning the business. After graduating from Florida State University with degrees in Public Administration and Entrepreneurship, he finally had the opportunity to turn a childhood dream into Guajiro Cuban Comfort Food.
Today, that dream has grown into a family-owned Cuban restaurant in Asheville, North Carolina, built around the same food, stories, and traditions Chris grew up with.
Why Asheville?
Asheville has been part of Chris’ life since childhood.
His family began spending summers and holidays here in 2002, and over the years Asheville became much more than a place to visit, it became home.
Chris’s parents, Jannette and Rich, are the owners of the historic Asheville Cotton Mill Studios in the River Arts District making the Cotton Mill and Asheville’s creative community part of the family’s story as well.
When the time finally came to make Guajiro a reality, Chris didn’t come to Asheville alone.
His cousin by marriage, Chef Joel Morales, moved his wife and young daughter to Asheville alongside Chris to help build Guajiro from the ground up.
Together, Chris and Joel, along with Nana’s recipes, set out to create the kind of Cuban restaurant they wanted to see here: rooted in family recipes and Cuban tradition, but unmistakably at home in Asheville.
Guajiro opened in 2022 with a simple goal: serve honest, authentic Cuban food in Asheville that tastes like something you would be served at our family’s table.
Hurricane Helene: Losing Our Home and Starting Again
On September 27, 2024, Hurricane Helene changed everything.
Floodwaters devastated Asheville’s River Arts District and the place Guajiro called home. Our original food truck was submerged and displaced. We lost our prep kitchen, equipment, inventory, and our sister bar, El Patio de Guajiro. The Asheville Cotton Mill was flooded as well.
In a matter of hours, so much of what our family and team had worked to build was gone.
But Guajiro’s story didn’t end in the flood.
With the support of Asheville, our customers, friends, family, and local partners, we started again. We found another food truck, rebuilt what we could, and reopened at Hi-Wire Brewing in Biltmore Village while work began on rebuilding our home at the Asheville Cotton Mill.
It hasn’t been an easy road back. But in many ways, rebuilding has brought us even closer to what the name Guajiro has always meant to us: working with your hands, taking care of your people, remembering where you came from, and continuing forward.
Now we’re bringing Guajiro home to the River Arts District.
Chris & Joel: Family From the Beginning
Joel isn’t new to Guajiro. He helped build it from the beginning.
Long before Guajiro opened its doors, Joel had already spent more than a decade cooking professionally in Cuban restaurants in Miami. He brought those years of experience, and a deep understanding of Cuban restaurant cooking with him to Asheville.
Today, Chef Joel Morales is co-owner and Director of Back of House, leading our kitchen, culinary operations, food quality and consistency, and the continued development of the dishes that define Guajiro.
Chris is co-owner and Director of Front of House, leading hospitality, guest experience, bar and beverage programs, events, marketing, and the overall direction of the Guajiro brand.
It’s a partnership that reflects how Guajiro has always worked: the kitchen and the table, working together.
Chris brings the family stories and recipes he grew up with. Joel brings decades of hands-on experience cooking Cuban food professionally. Together, they share the same responsibility, preserving what makes Cuban food special while building something that belongs here in Asheville.
The goal isn’t to reinvent Cuban food. It’s to respect it, cook it well, serve it with pride, and create the kind of place where people feel welcome enough to stay awhile.
Coming Home to the Cotton Mill
Our next chapter brings Guajiro back to where it all began.
Our new home at Studio 11 inside the historic Asheville Cotton Mill in the River Arts District has been rebuilt as the fullest expression of Guajiro yet, a place where Cuban food, drinks, music, family, art, and Asheville can come together under one roof.
The new Guajiro will continue to serve Cuban breakfast, lunch, and dinner, along with Cuban coffee throughout the day. Our new full bar will feature cocktails, beer, wine, and drinks inspired by the flavors and stories of Cuba. Our Music Lounge will bring another part of Cuban culture to the table, creating a relaxed place to gather over drinks, food, and music. In the coming years, Asheville’s River Arts District will host live music performances, DJ sets, Cuban and Latin music nights, and special events that infuse the area with the vibrant rhythm and energy of Cuba.
The restaurant will include indoor dining El Comedor, our front patio El Portal, and the return of El Patio in the back, creating different spaces to eat, drink, gather, and stay awhile.
Studio 11 will also be available as an Asheville event space for private parties and special events, giving us the opportunity to host celebrations, dinners, gatherings, music, and other events in the same warm, relaxed spirit as the restaurant.
After Hurricane Helene, returning to the Cotton Mill means something different to us.
We’re not simply opening a bigger restaurant.
We’re coming home.
From Cuba to Asheville.
Guajiro is more than a Cuban restaurant in Asheville.
It’s Serafín working the sugarcane fields at La Puntilla.
It’s Nana standing over the stove, adding a little more of this and a little more of that until it tastes right.
It’s Chris dreaming about opening a restaurant when he was seven years old.
It’s Joel spending more than a decade cooking Cuban food in Miami, then packing up his family and moving to Asheville to help build that dream.
It’s a food truck that survived a flood, two families who chose to rebuild, and a new home taking shape inside a historic Asheville building that survived alongside us.
From the Cuban countryside to Miami to the Blue Ridge Mountains, we’re proud to share our family’s version of authentic Cuban comfort food with Asheville.
Come by for breakfast and a café con leche, meet us for lunch and a Cuban sandwich, stay for dinner and cocktails, or grab Cuban takeout and delivery in Asheville when you want to bring a little Guajiro home.
Bienvenidos a Guajiro.
Hecho con amor. Hecho en Asheville.
Cuban Food, Cocktails & Events in Asheville
Guajiro Cuban Comfort Food serves authentic Cuban family recipes, Cuban breakfast, cafecito, Cuban sandwiches, lunch, dinner, cocktails, takeout, and delivery in Asheville, North Carolina. Located at Studio 11 in the historic Asheville Cotton Mill in the River Arts District, Guajiro also features a full bar, music lounge, indoor and outdoor dining, and private event space.