Restaurants in Chiclayo, Peru, Compete Over Claims of Ties to Pope Leo XIV

In the northern Peruvian city of Chiclayo, excitement is building ahead of a visit by Pope Leo XIV, who is scheduled to arrive Nov. 13. Crews were setting up large screens outside St. Mary’s Cathedral, and locals leaving Mass photographed City Hall, which was lit in the Vatican’s yellow and white. Signs across the city call Chiclayo “The Capital of Friendship” and the “City of Pope Leo XIV.”

The pope served as bishop of the Diocese of Chiclayo for eight years before his election, and the source describes a strong sense among residents of shared ownership of his memory. That devotion is visible on a narrow side street near the cathedral, where two neighboring restaurants each claim a personal connection to him.

El Trébol, which has operated for several decades, calls itself “the pope’s restaurant.” Its sign welcomes the pope back to Chiclayo. Since his election, a table known as Table 3, or “The Blessed Table,” has become a local landmark, decorated with mementos and bearing an excerpt from the pope’s first speech to the diocese. Staff describe dishes the pope favored, including “Seco de Cabrito,” a slow-cooked goat stew, and “Frito Chiclayano,” a Sunday breakfast of fried pork, boiled sweet potatoes and onion salad. Eduard Montoya, who has run El Trébol for 11 years, told OSV News on Nov. 9: “We didn’t create a restaurant for a pope, nor a table for a pope. Circumstantially, history and time made it the pope’s restaurant.”

Next door, Las Américas bills itself as “the restaurant where Pope Leo XIV really ate.” Oscar Ramirez Flores, 60, has worked there as a waiter for four decades. A framed photograph on the wall shows the owner with then-Bishop Prevost. Ramirez told OSV News on Nov. 9 that he probably served the future pope only once, noting that the diocesan chancery was nearby and that the bishop rarely ate out because priests and staff had their own cooks. When he did eat there, Ramirez said, he ordered cabrito, or braised goat, “like a good Chiclayano.” Ramirez described him as “a very good person, very serious as a human being,” and added, “At that time he was bishop – we never imagined he was going to be pope.”

The competing signs point to long-standing friction over historic names and marketing claims, and Ramirez acknowledged that El Trébol’s publicity campaign had been effective. Montoya said there is no bad blood between the restaurants and argued that both show how deeply the future pope, known locally as “Padre Roberto,” became part of daily life in the city. He said the bishop once asked for recommendations for a tailor and a barber, and that people point to the barber, a dentist and other local businesses that served him. “I don’t see it as people trying to jump on the bandwagon – it’s just the truth,” Montoya told OSV News.

The source also describes the bishop’s hands-on presence in the diocese. Montoya recalled him wading through regional flooding during the 2017 El Niño storms, mobilizing aid during the pandemic, and riding a mule into the rugged Andean highlands of the Cañaris and Incahuasi districts to reach isolated Indigenous communities, who mainly speak Quechua. Those efforts reached people in remote places who needed help, a picture of welcoming those in need (Matthew 25:35).

When he took a break from church offices nearby, Montoya said, the bishop would often walk down to the restaurant, sometimes with others, to finish church business over breakfast and a plate of “Frito Chiclayano.”

Source: Read the original report