Dreams on wheels: Coqui Comfort food truck owners opening restaurant in Rock Falls

ROCK FALLS – The Coqui Comfort food truck will open its first brick-and-mortar location Thursday, Nov. 7, at 110 W. Second St. in Rock Falls.

Owners Nick and Suly Garcia have literally been chasing their dreams in a food truck across the Sauk Valley area for several years. Coqui Comfort started out of the Garcias’ home in 2021, when they took and prepared orders in their garage. They expanded to the food truck Aug. 15, 2022.

“We’re originally from the East Coast, and there’s a lot of Puerto Rican spots to eat there,” Suly said. “It is when we started cooking out of the garage that we started realizing the lack of this type of food here.”

With the new restaurant, customers now can call in and order their favorite dish for pickup or stop and eat inside.

“We wanted to keep the same vibe as our food truck, which is fast and casual dining,” Nick said.

Coqui Comfort offers authentic, nontraditional Puerto Rican street food, such as jibaritos, papa rellenos and pernil. Although she learned much about cooking from watching her mother, Suly said the food at Coqui Comfort is uniquely her own.

“I started with what I knew about cooking and added my take on things,” Suly said. “I wanted to start our own tradition with our kids. These are my recipes that I’m going to pass on to my daughter. It’s still authentic. This is just Coqui’s taste.”

As for the Garcias’ food truck, it still will be out serving meals on wheels for catering, special events and other occasions that the Garcias will continue to share on their Facebook page.

“The truck was our first love,” Nick said. “[There’s] no way we would get rid of it.”

The restaurant will be open from 11 a.m. to 7 p.m. Thursdays and from 11 a.m. to 9 p.m. Fridays and Saturdays. However, just like the food truck, the restaurant will close for the day once it sells out of food.

“We want to keep these hours so we can continue to focus on what is most important, and that is the quality and freshness of the food we provide,” Nick said. “We feel that if we are here six or seven days a week, we’re not going to put that product out that we are known for. We stand behind our name and our brand, and it’s not worth risking the quality of our food.”