Five days a week, the International Café at 219 N. Hogan St. features specials with a worldwide flair.
Owners Alvaro and Lylliam Borge opened the restaurant a decade ago to feature recipes from their native Nicaragua as well as other cuisines.
For example, the Monday specials are Mexican tostados and tacos. Tuesday features frito, which is seasoned pork, and Licha’s chicken, a Nicaraguan specialty of dark chicken cooked with tomatoes, garlic, onion and bell peppers.
Wednesday finds roast pork and jambalaya, a U.S. specialty. Thursday offers just one special – Mexican tacos with chicken, beef or chorizo.
Friday’s specials are ropa vieja and tipitapa fish, another Nicaraguan specialty.
The International Café offers a regular menu as well, including breakfast. Among the early morning offerings are traditional items as well as eggs rancheros, Cuban toast with café con leche and Latin chorizo on a pita.
Regular lunch items include burgers and other standards, as well as a Cuban sandwich that Alvaro Borge contends is the best just about anywhere.
“Everything is good,” he says, explaining the food is fresh and homemade.
The café also offers hojuelas for dessert, which are fried flour tortillas with homemade syrup. There also are special coffees.
The lunch specials are less than $9 and are served with side items and a soda, while the regular lunch menu items are priced from $3.75 to $7.75.
Borge said he came to the U.S. 30 years ago seeking political asylum and took a job with Winn-Dixie Stores Inc. A decade ago, he took his savings and invested it in the restaurant.
The restaurant has four employees, including his wife and sister-in-law, Hilda Castillo. The Borges have four children and 10 grandchildren.
The International Café operates from 7 a.m. to about 3 p.m. Monday-Friday. Borge says the diverse Downtown customer base includes lawyers, dentists, doctors, banking employees, office workers, City staffers and many others.
While the relocated Duval County Courthouse hasn’t generated a lot of customers, “we saw some new faces,” he said.
He welcomes more.
The café offers dine-in and carryout. It seats 26 inside and 22 outside for sidewalk service. It is directly across the street from the Ed Ball Building.
The restaurant’s number is 665-3262.
Its motto is “Mi casa es su casa.”
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