Meet the huge Long Island family behind Colombian restaurant chain

"Cumpleaños feliz, te deseamos a ti" the Lenis family sang. It was just after midnight on March 4 and the family of 13 ended a staff meeting by dimming the lights and gathering around a birthday cake lit up with candles. They had discussed the launch of their first Suffolk County restaurant — Sabor a Colombia in Central Islip — but were also intent on celebrating one of their own, Brenda Mauricio Lenis, manager of their restaurant in Franklin Square.

It was a welcome break for a family who communicates more through WhatsApp. They have three — soon to be four — restaurants to run, and although they make it look easy, it isn’t.

When the family patriarch, Oscar Lenis, bought Levittown’s Sabor a Colombia ("Taste of Colombia") in 2020, it was his first-ever venture into the restaurant world. The Colombian native, who came to the United States in 2000, was busy running his own construction company, OLV Remodeling, but soon found himself excavating to put in a larger grease trap, for instance, and keeping the place open through the pandemic. Throughout, Lenis remained resilient and kept a clear goal in sight. "I don’t just see what’s in front of me, I see past that at what it will become," he said in Spanish.

For him, that has led to a mini chain of restaurants, including the two branches of Sabor a Colombia as well as Made in Colombia in Hicksville. And he’d be the first to tell you that he has his family to thank — in particular, his daughter Evelyn Arcieri. She’d been a server for about five years at the Levittown place when the previous owner suggested her family should purchase the business, which has always been committed to giving diners an authentic taste of the Colombian table. The vibrant, vast space (Levittown seats 196) is anchored by a bright yellow, red and blue chiva (meaning "goat" in Spanish and the name for the busses used in rural parts of Colombia). Photos of Sofia Vergara, Shakira and other Colombian artists dot the walls.

"With tips, I used to make a lot and [the restaurant] was always really packed, so I was like, ‘Maybe this is not a bad idea,’" Arcieri said. Her husband was always a bartender, she added. She had always been a server, and her dad was in construction. "So, I told my dad, and my dad says ‘no’ to nothing."  

In Levittown, Arcieri arranges parties and events, and books artists such as comedian Don Jediondo and singers such as Luis Felipe Gonzalez and Maelo Ruiz. "I have the phone that [clients] call all day, send deposits, the decorations, the food, that’s me," Arcieri said with pride. Arcieri’s husband, Jean Carlo Arcieri, is the accountant for the entire business. Her sister Brenda Mauricio Lenis manages the Franklin Square spot and helps Arcieri with the design of the restaurants, all built by Lenis.  

Alberto Alvarado, Sabor a Colombia’s head chef who stayed on through the change of ownership and is treated as a member of the family, may be Mexican, but his expertise in Colombian food runs deep. The food of Colombia — a country that boasts two coasts, three mountain ranges and many distinctive regional characteristics — is dazzling in its scope, but you will get a grounding in the essentials here, from morning until night.

The breakfast desayuno, for instance, is a hearty mashup of scrambled eggs with tomatoes and onions, rice and beans, steak, sausage, a thickish griddled corn cake (arepa) and Colombian-style chicharrón, a crisp-fried serrated crescent of meat, fat and skin. Later in the day, you might want to sample the carne asada, grilled pork loin or the bandeja, a traditional platter of grilled top round steak or ground beef with white rice, beans, fried sweet plantains, an egg, chicharrón, sausage, a small arepa and avocado.

The Lenis spot in Hicksville, Made in Colombia, is run by brothers David and Josue Lenis and focuses more on Colombian street foods such as salchipapas — that is, fries loaded with sausage, chicken, corn, cheese, egg and guacamole. This fast food-forward spot is eye-catching inside and out, and Latin pop music and reggaeton get diners in the mood for arepas, a chuzo desgranado (a meaty, cheesy, potatoey fast-food fave) or an opulently topped hot dog or burger. They get up without leaving any crumbs behind.

While the family enjoys working together, their success hasn’t come without sacrifices, Brenda Lenis said. “We don’t take vacations together because there’s always something."

By Melissa Azofeifa

melissa.azofeifa@newsday.com

Melissa Azofeifa is a restaurants reporter with Newsday's FeedMe team. Having grown up on Long Island, she loves talking about food and its impact on culture. A graduate of Stony Brook University, she joined Newsday in the fall of 2024.