Our story

Our flavour begins long before your table

At village fairs there was always one stall where people lined up for good chicharrón. It belonged to Don Luis Varela.

Since

1 July 2013

Our own farm

Guacimal, Puntarenas

Dry aging

21 to 60 days

At Costa Rican village fairs there is always one stall where people line up for good chicharrón. Around Monteverde — and as far as Esparza — for years that stall belonged to Don Luis Varela, whose chicharrón became his signature.

Cooking at a village fair is nothing like cooking in a restaurant. There is no menu, no portions, no closing time: there is a stall of boards and tarpaulin, pots too big for any house, a fire that stays lit for two days, and a whole town arriving at once.

That was his life until April 2012 when, at sixty, Don Luis stirred his chicharrón paddle for the last time and passed his art of seasoning on to his son Kenneth.

Don Luis Varela stirring chicharrón with his paddle at a village fair stall — Don Luis Varela and his chicharrón paddle, at a village fair stall.

For Kenneth, cooking was always his passion. He studied gastronomy, but his real teacher was his father. While he built his culinary career, he and his wife Dehilyn Villegas shared a dream growing quietly: both had worked for years in tourism and knew that one day they would open a restaurant of their own.

On 1 July 2013 they opened Restaurante Don Luis in Cerro Plano de Monteverde. They could have called it anything; they named it after his father, to carry his legacy from a village fair to the table. Dehilyn, co-founder and operator, built the systems behind Kenneth's vision.

Don Luis never got to see the restaurant that carries his name. That is why the face drawn on the sign, on the menu and on the door is his. And why the brand seal carries the year 2013 next to three words: aging, time, flavour.

Three things he left behind appear on no menu: the passion for cooking, respect for the ingredient, and the habit of treating guests as if they had walked into your home.

Kenneth Varela cooking in the restaurant kitchen and his father Don Luis Varela at a village fair

Father and son

Kenneth Varela, the chef who honours the legacy

Kenneth is the culinary heart of the restaurant. With his training in gastronomy, his experience as a butcher and the tradition inherited from his father, he became an executive chef with deep expertise in preparing meat.

But his role goes beyond the kitchen: he also runs Finca Don Luis. The same man who cuts and ages the beef is the one who raises the cattle.

The farm

The farm began with a question

With the restaurant up and running, Kenneth and Dehilyn ran into a question no supplier could answer for them: how do you guarantee that the beef you serve is as good as it should be?

Their answer was to start their own farm. For that they drew not only on the craft Don Luis had taught them in the kitchen, but on what he had taught them about working the land and raising cattle. What began as an operational necessity became the heart of the restaurant: today the beef comes from Finca Don Luis, in Guacimal.

The cuts age 21 to 60 days in the case that sits in the dining room, in plain sight. Flavour takes as long as it takes.

Don Luis is not a traditional Costa Rican restaurant and never set out to be. It is international cooking with Costa Rican touches. The tradition is not on the plate: it is in the family name, in the farm and in the patience.

Cattle at Finca Don Luis in Guacimal: cows and horses in the pasture, and the farm feeder

What we inherited

Three things that are not on the menu

The passion for cooking

Cooking so people eat well, not just to get through service. It is what he did at the fairs and it is what we do here.

Respect for the ingredient

That is why the beef ages as long as it needs to, and why it comes from a farm with a name.

Hosting as if at home

Welcoming whoever walks in as if they had walked into your house. It is what guests mention most in their reviews.