From the Caribbean, With Love

Daniella Senior was in second grade, growing up in the Dominican Republic capital of Santo Domingo, when her entrepreneurial spirit first became apparent. She asked her parents for RoseArt stickers for Christmas and then sold them to her classmates at lunchtime. 

When she was 11, her grandmother fell ill and went to Boston for treatment, accompanied by Senior’s mother. Craving something other than the sandwiches she, her father and two sisters were eating in her mom’s absence, the enterprising preteen taught herself how to cook. She started with Hamburger Helper and then, poring through cookbooks, expanded her repertoire to include lobster thermidor, chicken cordon bleu and Dominican specialties like sancocho (meat and vegetable stew) and moro de habichuelas (rice and beans). 

Soon she was whipping up lavish weekend spreads whenever her enormous extended family came over to watch baseball—a Dominican obsession—on TV. 

At 13, the budding chef started a catering business during the holiday season, borrowing $200 from her mother to print brochures and buy gift boxes and ingredients to make 120 petits fours. She distributed the sweets as samples to everyone she knew, including her parents’ 12 siblings and the co-workers at the bank where her mother worked. 

“The next day, orders poured in,” says Senior, now 35. “Before I knew it, I had a massive operation. I had to order ovens and equipment. By the end of the year, I had six employees. I had to make arrangements with my high school to leave early every day to manage the business.”  

That business would ultimately afford her the opportunity to fulfill a dream. After graduating from high school, she attended the Culinary Institute of America in Hyde Park, New York, earning a bachelor’s degree in hospitality management in 2010. 

By then, Senior had also spent time working in notable Manhattan restaurants Gotham Bar & Grill (now closed) and Le Bernardin. Carrying those credentials with her to D.C., she landed a job at the Four Seasons Hotel, and later at Zaytinya, chef José Andrés’ Levantine hot spot in Penn Quarter, where she increased bar revenue by $1 million in the span of one year by introducing craft cocktails and seasonal promotions.

That track record led her to launch a hospitality consulting business, The Pour Group, in 2015 with Juan Coronado, a fellow alum of Andrés’ ThinkFoodGroup, acquiring clients in Washington, Miami, Spain and Mexico.

Frequent trips to Miami inspired the idea for Colada Shop, the Cuban-style coffee bar and café concept the duo would introduce to the D.C. area one year later.

“I couldn’t wait to get [to Miami] because of the Latin coffee experience,” Senior says, recalling how vibrant it felt compared to the anodyne coffee shops serving the same tired muffins and scones in other cities.

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“I wanted a place with Latin music and food—the smell, warmth and happiness from my childhood, where you were greeted with a smile and got coffee that hugged you.” 

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Being beverage people, she and Coronado added cocktails to the mix and opened the first Colada Shop in Sterling in 2015. (In Cuba, a colada is a multi-shot serving of espresso meant to be divvied up and shared.) 

Today, the Caribbean concept has six locations throughout the DMV, including a Clarendon café that opened in March. A seventh is slated to debut at National Landing this summer. (The original Sterling location closed in 2020.)

The cafés have a distinct island vibe, with tropical colors, salsa music, rummy cocktails (think mojitos, Cuba libres and piña colada slushies) and Havana blend coffee, plus Latin American snacks such as empanadas, croquetas, tostones and, of course, a toasted Cuban sandwich with roasted pork, ham, pickles, Swiss cheese and mustard. 

Colada Shop’s expansion isn’t the only thing keeping Senior busy. A founding partner in the Michelin-starred restaurant Bresca and owner of the Latin American bar Serenata, both in D.C., she also serves on the boards of the Restaurant Association of Metropolitan Washington and the Culinary Institute of America, as well as on the advisory board of the invitation-only Latino Executive Network. She works with the James Beard Foundation’s Women’s Entrepreneurial Leadership Program and the U.S. State Department’s Diplomatic Culinary Partnership. She’s as much an advocate for hospitality workers as she is a restaurant owner.

“Change comes from policy. There are so many important issues to discuss,” says Senior, who lives in Arlington’s Douglas Park neighborhood with her husband, Andrew Alvarez, and their toddler son, Sebastian. “Childcare is foremost. I spoke to Congress about a path to citizenship for immigrant workers, the backbone of the hospitality industry, who have no security whatsoever.”

As a self-made businesswoman, she’s especially passionate about mentoring workers, particularly immigrants, who aim to start their own businesses. 

“There is a disparity of funding going to women and minorities, and too few women and minorities are in charge of that funding,” she says. “People should invest in them because of the resilience it took just to get here and their refusal to give up. For them, failure is not an option.”

In what little free time she has, Senior enjoys dining out close to home at Café Colline, Ruthie’s All-Day and Pirouette wine bar. For pampering, she visits Keen, a woman-owned nail bar in Clarendon. “They work a lot with the Napkin Network, a foundation that supports mothers,” she says of the salon owned by fellow entrepreneur Sam Moss. “They’re always doing events to support moms.”

Fun-loving neighbors in Douglas Park have filled the void—at least in part—of the extended family Senior left behind in Santo Domingo. 

“My little neighborhood is so welcoming,” she says. “Our neighbors have become really close friends, looking out for each other. It’s a strong sense of community that I hadn’t found in the U.S. until now.” 

What about hobbies? 

At that question, she just laughs. “Are you kidding?”

David Hagedorn is Arlington Magazine’s dining critic.