Derick Lopez has opened The Freakin' Rican in Teaneck.

By Cecilia Levine From Daily Voice

The Freakin’ Rican, a well-known Puerto Rican restaurant with a large following in New York City, has opened in Teaneck. The new restaurant is located at 466-468 Cedar Lane, replacing Bischoff’s, a longtime ice cream shop later occupied by a gelato store.

Executive Chef Derick Lopez, who founded The Freakin’ Rican Brand in 2014, said he created the business to share the food he grew up eating in the Bronx. According to his website, he started by selling food at street fairs in New York City before building a social media audience of more than 450,000 followers.

Lopez said his passion for Puerto Rican cooking came from watching his mother prepare homemade meals. “It spurred him to offer the world the same experience his mother offered him — indigenous meals made from scratch, with plenty of love,” his biography reads. The Freakin’ Rican Brand has since been featured in the New York Times, El Diario, Grub Street, and on Univision’s Primer Impacto, according to the website.

The Teaneck location offers a full menu of Puerto Rican dishes, including pernil, chicharrón de pollo, mofongo, bistec encebollado, and house specialties such as Cuban sandwiches, empanadas, pastelón, and fried red snapper.