La Cocina de Sandra Opened on Temple Street
New restaurant operators can leverage landlord incentives and institutional catering contracts to build early traction.
Updated on Oct. 10, 2026 in Openings & Closings
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Owner Sandra Trigueros soft-opened La Cocina de Sandra at 25 Temple St. in New Haven this October, moving into the former home of Havenly Cafe. The restaurant, which serves a variety of traditional dishes, transitioned from ghost kitchen and food truck operations to this permanent storefront.
Why it matters
Securing a physical location provides operators with greater visibility and catering capacity, a strategic step for scaling beyond mobile food models. The move underscores the role of landlord-tenant cooperation in facilitating business continuity for successor businesses in vacated retail spaces.
The restaurant currently manages a daily window of 12 p.m. to 8 p.m. seven days a week, supported by a production scale that includes a recent 200-pupusa order for Yale. The owner secured the lease with a one-month rent incentive following the closure of the prior tenant.
The players
Sandra Trigueros
Founder and owner of La Cocina de Sandra who transitioned from ghost kitchen operations to a storefront.
Elmer Galvez
General manager responsible for daily restaurant operations.
The details
Trigueros secured the 25 Temple St. space after the co-directors of the previous tenant, Havenly Cafe, facilitated an introduction to the landlord. The agreement included one month of free rent to assist with the setup and kitchen transition. Daily kitchen operations currently begin at 5 a.m. to support the menu, which includes pupusas, pepián, and other traditional items.
Timeline
July 17, 2026: Havenly Cafe closed its Temple Street location.
October 8, 2026: Sandra Trigueros discussed the new venture.
October 11, 2026: Grand opening of La Cocina de Sandra.
Market Landscape
The opening at 25 Temple St. follows the departure of Havenly Cafe, which vacated the site on July 17, 2026. This transition demonstrates the standard cycle of local retail turnover where incoming entrepreneurs leverage existing infrastructure and landlord concessions.
Operators looking to expand from mobile or ghost kitchen models should prioritize networking with exiting tenants to secure landlord introductions and lease incentives. Monitor the upcoming schedule adjustments post-October to determine how local demand influences operational hours.
The takeaway
Transitioning to a brick-and-mortar storefront requires both landlord cooperation and the capacity to handle large institutional orders like those from universities. Operators should analyze their early-stage order volume to determine if current daily hours need adjusting to match peak demand periods.
Further reading
For more on shifts in local retail, visit the New Haven Openings & Closings section.
Source note: This article includes information reported by New Haven Indy.
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