Mami Dearest

Cobre owner Diana Guzman redefines "staying busy."

by A.D. Amorosi

	print	email	reply	rss feed

Published: Jun 5, 2007

SALUD: Diana Guzman behind the bar at Cobre, her new Mexican/Puerto Rican restaurant on North Broad. Photo By: Geovanni Guzman (CLICK IMAGE FOR LARGER VERSION)

Every morning, Diana Guzman unlocks the huge copper doors of her breezy new North Broad restaurant-lounge, Cobre, then does the same at her Dianni's Ballroom in Juniata before arriving to work at Diana Cristine's Beauty Salon on Spring Garden � all by 10 a.m.

Not to sound like an old Clairol commercial, but how does she do it? Her hair looks so great.

"And people tell me I look 28 or 30, too," says Guzman, 42, barely masking a soft chuckle, while walking into the hair salon she's owned for 19 years. She laughs a lot when she speaks, and with good reason. She's been everything from a beauty pageant queen (Miss Puerto Rico Philadelphia, 1982) to a Latin songstress (she released Sin Tu Amor in 2000). Guzman has funneled all aspects of her entertainment background into a triple-threat juggling act that includes what she calls downtown's only authentic Puerto Rican restaurant on a block that's slowly becoming a center for fine dining.

"It's just like I said when I opened the beauty shop," says Guzman, who was born in Philly to Puerto Rican emigrant parents. "We need a genuine place around here so that we don't have to go to North Philly [to] eat, or deal with the American-made Puerto Rican food in Center City." Guzman says the cuisine at Cuba Libre or Sabor tastes nothing like the real thing. "Those places cater to the Anglos. They just don't have the same sasson," Guzman teases. She doesn't speak mean: She's simply an energetic, easily bored woman who knows what she wants and how to own it.

Being mighty real has been a sort-of motto for the Guzmans ever since the family moved to the Art Museum area from Puerto Rico in the early 1960s. Diana relocated to Northern Liberties at 21 and has stayed there since, buying and selling properties and opening businesses � even when the gringos weren't so nice to her family. Really, though, who wouldn't be nice to a woman whose first job was taking care of rabbits at the Academy of Natural Sciences? Or a girl who sold corn dogs at The Gallery? Or who worked in the visual services department at SmithKlein under porn photog Tony Ward? Well, not literally under. "I'm a nice girl," she laughs. "He did ask me to model, though. I said, 'No, thanks.' I like having a good reputation."

Like her mother before her and her sister after her, Guzman became Miss Puerto Rico Philadelphia while still a teen. She graduated from high school but dropped out of college to go to beauty school ("my parents were freaked") and opened her first shop at age 23: Diana Cristine's on Spring Garden, which she still owns and operates, cutting, clipping and styling a 25-plus-year-old client base by herself.

"I work alone because hairdressers are just too much drama," she jokes. "We're artists. We're too much to handle." And Guzman's customers? "They have the money and the time ... and they have the [courtesy] to keep appointments."

What's more, they're totally supportive of Guzman's careers � they snapped up the salsa/merengue/cumbia album. They use her ballroom for Sweet 16 parties and weddings. And recently, they've started showing up at Cobre, her second food service venture. (Her first was Gianni's bar in Fishtown, which opened in 1999 and closed five years later.)

"I don't know if I'm an entertainer per se � rather, I'm a people person," says Guzman. And she designed her new space � with its high ceilings, long tile mosaic bar and wide mezzanine level � to appeal to a broad range of people, including Center City diners and Latinos on the east side of Broad. She made it playful, adding a cavelike billiards room to Cobre's basement lounge so that people looking to chill can do so without bugging quiet-minded diners upstairs. ("I love to shoot pool � and I'm good, too," she adds.)

Guzman made Cobre accessible with a menu � based on family recipes and cooked by family members � that's easy to get into. One side's fully Puerto Rican, while the other features Mexican with a Texican twist. "That concession is working, as lots of Latinos come in, taste the Mexican food the first time and our Puerto Rican menu the next time," says Guzman. The eatery offers authentic Puerto Rican flavors (achiote, sofrito, cilantro, tocino) and dishes (alcapurrias, pastelillos). "Even Latinos don't know all the flavors of the island," she says, alluding to uncommon sensations like the garlic sauce served with Cobre's plantains or her father-in-law's red garlic sauce for the carne frita (fried pork). Everything's under $16, so even the most frugal diners can sample big entrees like the bistec encebullado en salsa (steak with onions and crillo sauce) with a salad crammed with avocado.

As for the name � in Spanish, it has two meanings. The first is "copper," which goes with the huge old door she's spit-polished to shine like the sun. "It also means 'charge.' But not to move forward � it means to get someone to spend money," she laughs.

(a_amorosi@citypaper.net)

Cobre, 812 N. Broad St., 215-235-1881.

 

All reader comments are subject to our Terms of Use. By clicking Post Comment, you acknowledge that you have reviewed and agree to these Terms.

Name	please enter your name
Email (will not be published)	please enter a valid email
URL	please enter a valid url
Comment	please enter a comment
Enter the security code on the right in the textbox below.
Security Code	please enter the code
	Join the City Paper Mailing List

Nosh Your Average
Rules of Engorgement
Feeding Frenzy
The Week In Eats
New Angle Lounge
Small Bites
"Waterfront" Dining Destinations
You Ask We Answer