Cuban Sol brings new exotic flavor to Athens area

This Thursday, Todd and Tuti Wilson will make their love for Cuban cuisine available to the Athens community with the opening of Sol Restaurant at 33 N. Court St.

The couple operated the Chica Chica Chop Chop buggy, which also served Cuban food, from fall of 2010 until this past October. The buggy, first located on Richland Avenue and then in uptown Athens this past spring and fall, received such great word-of-mouth reviews that the Wilsons decided to open a restaurant years earlier than they had originally planned.

"We had a lot of positive feedback from our customers, and they asked when we were going to open a restaurant," Todd Wilson said. "It was our test in the environment, and it was good."

Though they are keeping some of the food from the vending buggy, their menu will be expanding because of the opportunities the space of a restaurant allows them. Wilson predicted that the community will respond well to the menu.

"I love Cuban (food). Anybody I know that has tried Cuban food loved it," Wilson said.

He said the Sol Restaurant menu includes a lot of common foods that people will recognize, but the Cuban twist in flavor will be new to Athens area customers.

"Most of it is not anything you can get around here," Tuti Wilson said. "It is a lot of familiar meats with flavors you may not be used to."

The Wilsons said they hope to grow a lot of their own ingredients on recently purchased land outside of town.

"When it's in season, we are going to provide as much of our own produce as we can," Todd Wilson said. "Also, we are going to do our own hickory, to do some smoking."

What they cannot grow themselves they will try to acquire from local farmers and businesses for most of their products. They plan to work with Snowville Creamery, Shagbark Seed and Mill and Integration Acres, among others. Todd Wilson said they will also be working with the local 30 Mile Meal program, which promotes local products.

"It's something we are going to be really into," Todd Wilson said.

Work on Sol Restaurant began at the end of last September after they acquired the space that was Restaurant Salaam's original site (in the alley off North Court Street, near where Wings Over Athens recently opened). The Wilsons began remodeling and let their customers follow the whole process on their blog, solrestaurant.blogspot.com. Todd Wilson said that they have had a lot of good feedback, with 4,200 total views on the website as of late last week.

"I thought if I did a blog it would give people more of an emotional investment," Wilson added.

After the success a Facebook page brought to Chica Chica Chop Chop, he said he hoped many of their customers would migrate over to the Sol page.

El Sol already has had people calling in for reservations and asking for gift cards. "I know people have a strong interest in what we are doing," he said. "There's a lot of buzz already about it. I think we will have a good crowd."

Sol Restaurant will be open for dinner starting this Thursday, with the hours 5-9 p.m. Monday through Wednesday, and 5-10 p.m. Thursday through Saturday. They will begin serving lunch Monday, Feb. 6, from 11 a.m. to 2 p.m., Monday through Friday. The dinner menu prices range from $10 to $20, and the lunch menu will range from $5 to $9.