Continuously serving Kosciusko County since 1854
At La Cantina Latin Bar & Grill, 3865 Lake City Hwy., Warsaw, it’s all about the atmosphere.
“We try to aim for an atmosphere where people can come in, relax, enjoy their ice coffee, their lattes in the morning. If you want to come out and study in the morning, you can, we’ve got the space and it’s usually pretty quiet in the morning,” said Gregory Velazquez, owner.
In the evenings and night time, there’s more of a vibe of “coming out, drinking with your friends, enjoying the atmosphere with the music,” he said.
Marina Velazquez said, “I really like the aesthetics, the vibe that we made it. It’s meant to be somewhere like relaxing, for friends to enjoy. Nothing too crazy like a nightclub, but at night we definitely want everyone to have fun. My favorite thing about it is definitely the way we built the interior, the colors and the lighting.”
La Cantina, which has been open for about three months, is next to Maria’s Family Restaurant, a popular place for breakfast and lunch. They had a ribbon-cutting ceremony Thursday with the Kosciusko Chamber of Commerce.
“You could say this is Maria’s bar,” said Gregory. “It is mostly drinks. We open up at 7 a.m., because we are with Maria’s - that’s the main reason we open up at 7 a.m. because a lot of people like to order Bloody Marys, mimosas, especially on the weekends, for breakfasts. But we also offer a nice coffee bar.”
He said they have a small menu right now for their coffee bar that includes a variety of choices like a caramel ice latte, an ice coffee and different flavors with an espresso shot.
Marina said in the mornings they are a coffee bar with handcrafted coffees, serving lattes, matcha, fresh-flavored waters and fruit-flavored waters.
“Our whole menu is very curated - small, but we’re looking to expand it,” she said. “In the evenings, we’re just a regular bar. We have a small food menu. We’re looking to add to that, but all of our cocktails have some sort of Latin inspiration and we have lots of housemade ingredients.”
She said they can take anything from La Cantina over to Maria’s, but Maria’s food can’t be brought over to La Cantina.
“Warsaw is a very great place. You’ve seen it. It’s got a lot of potential, it’s growing and I believe it’s still going to keep on growing. It just needs a little kick still,” Gregory said. “We have a variety of bars in town, which is nice, but I know a lot of times bars don’t serve food up until they close and we serve food one hour before we close. So, that’s what makes us a little bit different.”
Food served until closing includes small bites that are still full meals, such as nachos, burgers, burritos, tacos and other choices.
Every other Thursday La Cantina has karaoke night.
Once a month they have a live DJ, with one scheduled for this Saturday, starting at 7 p.m.
“We do have a dance floor,” Gregory said. “So you can guys can come out, dance a little and most of all enjoy the drinks, enjoy the small bites, the food menu. We just try to aim for something where people have enough space - it’s spacious in here - so we want everyone to feel comfortable and enjoy their night.”
Occasionally, they’ll have a Paint & Sip event. There’s one scheduled for 12:30 p.m. this Saturday.
Marina said, “We’re hosting lots of events every month. We plan out our month for at least two events every month.”
She said they also can host private events as it’s a very spacious place. Their capacity is 150 people. Maria’s and La Cantina share the same phone, which is 574-268-0600.
Monday through Wednesday, hours are 7 a.m. to 10 p.m.; Thursday hours are 7 a.m. to 12 a.m.; Friday and Saturday, hours are 7 a.m. to 2 a.m.; and Sunday hours are 7 a.m. to 8 p.m.
Find them on Facebook, Instagram, TikTok and other social media under La Cantina Warsaw.
“I would just suggest that they follow us on social media because there we post all of our events. We post specials, we have daily drink specials, happy hour 2 to 7 p.m., and we’re always playing the UFC fights, sports, anything going on. We just welcome everybody to keep up with our social media because we post all of our events there,” Marina stated.
