Large signs announce the opening of a new Puerto Rican restaurant in a tiny building in Akron.

We can thank Amelis Repollet, all of 24 years old, for opening Hayuya Restaurant and serving up delights such as roasted pork shoulder with mofongo — plantains, a tropical fruit often used as a vegetable, mashed with salt, garlic and oil — as well as pigeon peas (beans with a slightly nutty taste) and rice, empanadas and more.

Yeah, a lot more, including desserts such as the not-too-sweet custard-like flan and Cuban sandwiches. Hayuya’s version comes with ham, roasted pork, turkey, Swiss cheese and a blend of mayonnaise and ketchup on French bread.

Repollet opened in October in the Ellet neighborhood, in a white concrete-block building at 886 Canton Road that over the years has been home to various Mexican restaurants and diners. She’s thrilled to be building a fan base.

“People are coming here and saying, 'I don’t have to go to Cleveland restaurants for Puerto Rican food,' " Repollet said. “'And your food is better than theirs.'”

She was a whirl on a recent day, greeting customers, taking orders and dashing into the kitchen to help prepare food and get orders out.

Earlier that day, she had gone shopping for ingredients, including meat for tripleta sandwiches, Puerto Rico’s version of a Cuban. Hayuya’s tripleta boasts roasted pork, ham, ground beef, chopped onions, American cheese and “mayo ketchup.” Lettuce is available on the tripleta (Spanish for triplet) and the Cuban. (Some say the classic Cuban has salami and not turkey.)

"People think the food might be spicy,” Repollet said. “It’s not spicy [hot], there’s just a lot of flavor in the food.”

Puerto Rican adobo seasoning, a staple of the island's cooking, is used on the meat. It is a mix of salt, oregano, black pepper and garlic. Sofrito, another staple, is included in such dishes as the roasted pork and the beef stew. It's a blend of bell peppers, onions and garlic.

The restaurant, with seating for 16 to 20 plus carryout, is just a two-person operation, with main cook Sheila Soto. Soto is the girlfriend of Repollet’s brother.

The restaurant is named for a small town in the mountainous central area of Puerto Rico where Repollet grew up. The Hayuya spelling is a phonetic one; in Puerto Rico, it's Jayuya.

Inside, Hayuya is cozy, with a brightly colored mural filling most of one wall. It depicts mountains overlooking a river and Taino people, who are indigenous to the Caribbean. A Puerto Rican flag hangs nearby.

Repollet arrived in the United States from Puerto Rico six years ago, joining family members who had come here earlier.

“My plan was to go to college, but I always had a dream of opening my own restaurant,” she said, recalling how she learned to cook from watching her mother and grandmother.

In between two stints working at a factory, she studied business management for a few months, and most recently worked at Walmart.

Her boyfriend, Cristhian Beltran, learned the Canton Road space was for lease. He helped her get the business off the ground, and the rest is Hayuya history.

David Bauch of Akron stopped in for the first time this month.

“This is really flavorful,” he said, eating the beef stew with a side of pigeon peas and rice, an entrée that costs $12. All the chicken, pork and seafood dishes come with a choice of a side dish. Sides include mofongo, french fries and plantain chips. Raw ripe plantains also are available.

The priciest dish is the flank steak at $16. The shrimp with garlic or Creole sauce is $14, as is the grilled fish.

Keith Brown of Akron also had the beef stew, declaring it “amazing.”

“It’s great all these cultures are coming here and bringing their food,” said Brown’s friend, Travis Fraley of Akron, enjoying his beefsteak and onions.

Hayuya is open from 11:30 a.m. to 7 p.m. Wednesday and Thursday, 11:30 a.m. to 8 p.m. Friday and Saturday and 10 a.m. to 4 p.m. Sunday. Call 234-678-7389. The restaurant, located at 886 Canton Rd., has a Facebook page.

Girl Scout cookies

The good news is that all Girl Scout cookies will cost the same amount, cutting down on confusion.

The bad news is that a box of any of them will cost $5. That represents a $1 increase for the old standbys such as Thin Mints, Samoas, Tagalongs and Do-Si-Dos.

Toffee-tastics, the gluten-free cookies introduced in 2015, and Girl Scout S’mores, which debuted in 2017, will remain $5 a box.

Girl Scouts begin taking orders Jan. 7 and deliveries begin in early March. Sales at grocery stores, malls and other sites begin March 8. The sale wraps up March 24.

Last year, total sales for Girl Scouts of North East Ohio troop members amounted to $2.89 million.

The price increase is the first since 2014, noted Kim Graves, spokeswoman for GSNEO, which includes troops in Summit, Portage, Medina and Stark counties.

Prices went up because the overall costs of the providing the “Girl Scout Leadership Experience” continues to rise, she said.

Troops get 17.5 percent of the sale of each box, and 30 percent covers the expense of producing the cookie. The remainder goes to the council for administrative and programming costs.

Girl Scout cookie sales begin in 1917. A troop in Muskogee, Okla., began the tradition, selling cookies they had baked at home.

Go to www.gsneo.org to find locations of booth sales. An app to find booths by ZIP code is available for Apple and Android phones. To find a Girl Scout selling cookies in your neighborhood, call 1-888-9-THIN MINT, or download the Cookie Locator app. Girl Scouts gather orders in person and online.

Quick bites

• Ronald Koltnow, author of "Barberton Fried Chicken: An Ohio Original," will be at the Summit County Historical Society, 550 Copley Road, Akron, from 5 to 8 p.m. Wednesday for a book signing.

The book, published last month, is available at the signing, Snowball Books at 564 Tuscarawas Ave. in Barberton and on Amazon. The book publisher is American Palate, an imprint of Arcadia Publishing and the History Press. Koltnow is an Akron native who lives in Boston.

Also Wednesday, the society will host evening tours, from 5 to 8 p.m., of its Perkins Stone Mansion at 550 Copley Road, with guests coming and going to look at the home at their convenience. For information on this event, call 330-535-1120.

• Each New Year's Eve, Louis Prpich, owner of the Chowder House Café in Cuyahoga Falls, cooks up dishes for which a famous chef is known. This year's will be an homage to the late chef and author Anthony Bourdain.

The menu that day will feature dishes that Bourdain liked to prepare or those he raved about about on his show, "No Reservations," that had him traveling the globe and experiencing the local cuisine.

Dishes will include Charleston-style oyster stew (fresh oysters, cream, tomato, fennel and crushed oyster crackers); pancetta-wrapped scallops with citrus beurre blanc topped with sunny-side-up quail eggs; rack of lamb with flageolet bean casserole; Cornish game hen with slices of black truffles over polenta; and prime rib with Yorkshire pudding.

He also plans on serving two types of the Vietnamese soup pho, one with duck and chicken topped with thinly sliced filet mignon, and the other with fresh fish, scallops and shrimp.

To reserve, call 330-794-7102. The restaurant, at 2028 Chestnut Blvd., will be open from 4 to 10 p.m.

• Papa Joe's, 1561 Akron-Peninsula Road in Akron's Merriman Valley, will host a five-course Champagne Dinner at 7 p.m. Dec. 29 featuring Henriot Brut, Ruinart Blanc de Blancs, Dom Perignon 2006, Duval Leroy Rose and Veuve Clicquot Demi-Sec.

Tickets are $150. Call 330-923-7999 to reserve.

• Wine, Cheese & Chocolate, Darling returns to the Akron Civic Theatre at 7 p.m. Feb. 9.

Last year's inaugural event was a sellout, attracting 400 folks. It's a spinoff of the historic theater's Akron Craft Beer Festival.

This year’s Wine, Cheese & Chocolate, Darling will feature more than 45 different wines, including dry and sweet varieties, red and white, sparkling and port. Tastings will be paired with cheese and chocolate from local purveyors.

Cost is $45. Attendees must be at least 21 years old. Tickets are available at the Akron Civic Theatre box office; by calling 330-253-2488 or Ticketmaster at 800-745-3000; and at www.akroncivic.com.

The Civic is at 182 S. Main St. in downtown Akron.

Katie Byard can be reached at 330-996-3781 or kbyard@thebeaconjournal.com. Follow her at KatieByardABJ on Twitter or Facebook.