It takes a load of entrepreneurial audacity, not to mention gobs of guts and baskets of money, to open a restaurant at the nadir of the worst economic recession in 70 years. Eating places of every category are withering and dying. Chefs are cutting staffs, reducing hours and days, trimming menus, exploring which ingredients might be replaced by cheaper options. And yet, here is Jimmy Rodriguez, owner of Don Coqui in suburban Westchester County, throwing open his doors and his arms in August 2009.

You have to admire his nerve. His new venue, after all, used to be MacMenamin’s Grill, which looked to be pretty successful to casual observers. It occupied a two-story loft that once housed a lucite factory, offering not only a spacious second-floor restaurant and lounge, but two working kitchens and a third intended for cooking classes. Rodriquez didn’t significantly change those functions, but he shifted the emphasis of his featured cuisine from the “New American” of his predecessor to “Puerto Rican”.

His menu could as easily be labeled “Latin American” or simply “Latino”. But Rodriquez states with validity that there are many distinct cuisines within those rubrics: Cuban food is not Mexican, Brazilian is not Argentinian, Caribbean isn’t Peruvian. They share ingredients and traditions, but in the same way that Spanish and Italian or German and Polish do, with both commonalities and departures. As far as he is concerned, this is the food that he knew growing up in the transplanted Puerto Rican culture of urban New York.

The menu offers some items familiar to most diners - arroz con pollo (chicken with rice) for one, and paella, for another, with shrimp, clams, mussels, lobster chunks..and green plantains. Other main courses, though, are likely to surprise non-Latinos: Plantain-crusted red snapper with mashed yuca, perhaps, or churrasco, grilled skirt steak and black bean rice with heat provided by the famous Argentinian chimichurri.  There’s more, a lot more, including sancocho, a flavorful stew of beef, chicken, and Caribbean root vegetables and ensalada de bacalao, a simple but satisfying cod salad. It’s all tasty, filling, and fetchingly presented. You’ve never heard of these things? It’s way past time to get acquainted. And when you do, you’ll discover commonalities with whatever other food you’ve been eating all your life.

Intrepid Jimmy R. has more on his mind than just feeding you. He wants you to come and party. He’s hired a congenial, attractive staff who want to help you in whatever event or proposal or seduction you might wish to celebrate. The music is cranked up as the evening rolls on. Laughter and dancing ensue. Word is out. They don’t take reservations for Friday or Saturday nights and the line goes out the door and down the steps. And that’s in this, our current slough of despair. Can he keep it going? That’s an experiment worth following.

Don Coqui. 115 Cedar Street (hard by exit 16 of the northbound I-95), New Rochelle, NY 10801. 914-632-4900. www.doncoqui.com

Tags: chimichurri, Puerto Rican food, sancocho