HOLYOKE — While Casa del Pollo just opened last month, its soul food menu has been developing for generations — a business built to model the childhood dinner table, and revive expressions of comfort, joy and community that comes from cuisine.

The small shop at 642 High St., whose name translates to House of Chicken, offers a fusion of African American soul food and Latin cuisines, including fried wings, rice and beans and fried pork, as well specials every weekend that bring in anything from oxtails, turkey wings, Rasta pasta or Alfredo lasagna.

First-time business owner Alexis Rentas opened the doors of Casa del Pollo to be a time machine to her childhood dining room table. While she is a licensed cosmetologist and is setting up a shop in Indian Orchard currently, she said the new restaurant has especially personal roots for her.

“This is one of my ways of being able to give the love that I received from my mom. She was the family cook, and this is something that ties me back to her,” said Rentas, a Springfield native.

The recipes and traditions received from her parents are now a means to gaining “generational wealth,” she said, as she offers vintage home recipes to consumers.

With $20,000 she outfitted the space that had formerly been vacant beside High Street Liquors. Her father co-owns the liquor store next door, and “we wanted to be able to bring some revenue to the area, and give back,” said Rentas.

The restaurant is open daily until 9 p.m., except for Saturday when customers can get late-night meals until 3 a.m. Additionally, Rentas says Casa del Pollo is gearing up to offer its menu on Door Dash and Uber Eats, and may set up some picnic tables on the sidewalk outside once the nice weather comes in the spring.

Both Rentas and the joint’s chef, Idella Sanders, said that food has been a fixture of their lives since the cradle, as both grew up in mixed Black and Hispanic households that were devoted to traditional foods.

Sanders, who works for a residential rehab program cooking full time in addition to working weekends at the House of Chicken, said food is “in my DNA,” and has had a passion for cooking since childhood.

“I starting cooking with my grandmother, and I always fell in love with the reactions of how people just loved her food,” she said, noting that among her favorite dishes to prepare include old Southern cooking and Latin cuisine.

She was proud to get a semblance of the reaction her grandmother got when Mayor Joshua Garcia and other city officials came out to support the business and try out their food at the House’s ribbon cutting on Feb. 5.

“I put so much love into it and seek advice and just have fun with it,” she said about her job.

Philip Langley, the restaurant’s manager, joined the small business because of his multiple decade friendship with Rentas and Sanders He said working alongside the two makes the place feel as though it has a “family structure.”

“Everyone seems to love our menu; it’s just getting people here,” said Rentas.

Samuel Gelinas can be reached at sgelinas@gazettenet.com.