- You might be surprised to find a good Cuban restaurant in a little town like Black Mountain.

But sure enough, Cousin's Cuban Cafe is delighting customers with its authentic flavors and strong Cuban coffee.

(latin music) - Cousin's Cuban Cafe is a labor of love.

We are an authentic Cuban restaurant.

It's family owned.

And we serve breakfast and lunch.

We're a slice of authentic Cuban food here in beautiful downtown Black Mountain.

One of my cousins was an artist.

And she always wanted to have a store and an art shop and a gift store.

And I had a restaurant in Miami with my mom.

So that's where my background comes from.

And we wanted to put both together.

- Betty brings real home style Cuban food from the islands of Cuba.

I lived in Key West half of my life.

And coming up here and meeting Betty was like almost like coming back home.

Everything tastes wonderful.

And the people that come here and just like over and over to say, oh, that's unbelievable, the taste.

And when I walk out of the kitchen, like these people, they clap.

And they say, thank you very much.

It's just a marvelous place just to represent Betty and a little bit of Cuba up here in the mountains.

- So we offer the most typical foods, which is the Cuban sandwich that everybody knows, all our pastries, guava pastries, empanadas.

We have coffee, which is so important as a Cuban culture, rice and beans.

So they're recipes that I grew up and dishes that I grew up having with my family.

And I gave them my own little twist and special ingredients, I would say.

- We come over here from Tennessee once to twice a week to have our Cuban food because we originally come from Florida.

Lots of Cuban food in Florida, not so much in Tennessee.

- We come down here usually twice a week for breakfast.

If we miss breakfast because of traffic or we get a late start, we'll have lunch here.

So even if you miss breakfast, you still get it later on.

- The Cafe Cubano is absolutely delicious.

And I have some vegan empanadas here.

They're vegan and gluten-free.

And it's wonderful to have that option.

And they're made with lentils.

And they have this wonderful vegan aioli sauce that comes with it.

- And I'm getting ready to have the Cubano sandwich that's vegan.

And this is my first time here.

I'm really excited to see how they put the sandwich together, how the protein is.

And I heard it's jackfruit.

So I'm super excited to see how they get the flavor in there.

- We're in an area that there's a lot of vegetarian, vegan.

And that's traditionally not Cuban food.

You wouldn't think of it that way.

And that's brought a whole set of other customers that otherwise wouldn't be able to be trying.

Everybody wants to try a different cuisine.

So we've been really very well accepted.

And we're celebrating our five years this October.

- Cuban coffee is really a dark roast.

But what really makes it is not-- it's not a bitter coffee, but it's a strong, dark roast.

It comes out very frothy, very thick.

And it's strong.

It's sweet.

It's just delicious.

And everybody knows it just like they know the Cuban sandwich.

- The famous Cuban sandwich, which people come from all over.

Usually, it's the number one seller other than the Cuban coffee.

Amazing.

- A lot of customers that come here, they want to hear my story.

When my parents left Cuba in 1961, they couldn't take anything with them except a suitcase and photos.

So all the photos that I have in that, what I call the family wall, are pictures of my parents' wedding, my grandparents living there, my sister's birthday.

So just a lot of memories.

And I have that wall in that room.

And I look at it all the time.

And it just reminds me of the sacrifice they all made to come here.

- Everybody comes up here and sits in this place.

And they enjoy the music.

They enjoy the food.

And for just a brief moment, they're captured in the island of Cuba for a while.

- You got to try Cuban food.

Cuban food, in and of itself, to try to explain it, it's got a lot of history to it.

It's got a lot of different spices that you won't find in American food, and certainly in any of the franchises.

So there's enough diversity that somebody is going to find something that they like.

And it's fantastic.

- There's something for everybody.

And once you've tasted it, you're hooked for life.

♪ - Cousins Cuban Cafe is at 108 Broadway Avenue in Black Mountain.

And they're open from 9 AM to 3 PM every day, except Wednesday.

For more information, give them a call at 828-357-5513.

Or go online to cousinscubancafe.com.