Pastry items sold at Lemon Yellow Bites in Tyler.

A local Latina duo is transporting East Texas residents to Venezuela and Puerto Rico with their new bakery in Tyler.

Lemon Yellow Latin Bites opened its doors at the beginning of December. The owners are Tahidi Perez and Cris Berlingeri, two Hispanic women with a love for food but most importantly a love to share their culture.

“People have said we transport them to their home,” Perez said. “When me and Cris talked about opening this, what really pushed this dream to come true was the experience of when someone eats the food.”

According to Berlingeri and Perez, Tyler needed a place like Lemon Yellow Latin Bites in order to expose residents to other Latin foods. They also mentioned the struggle to find Latin bakeries in the East Texas area for those of other Latin countries like Venezuela and Puerto Rico.

“We’re all immigrants and we’re all missing the food. It shouldn’t be, ‘I miss that’ although we’re here with a better life and we’re here. There’s nothing that’s going to replace our mother, home, our food, the smell when we’re eating an empanada or when my mom prepared the coffee. But when someone from Colombia, Venezuela, Puerto Rico eats a little bit of our food and they’re like, ‘We’re at home and I feel like at home,’ that’s what fills us, and that is our biggest impact here with Latinos in Tyler,” she said. “What has filled us is to bring a piece of our home and our culture to the homes here in Tyler.”

Perez has been in Tyler for six years and Berlingeri for seven years. Perez came straight from Venezuela with her husband not knowing where they were landing.

“I came here without knowing anybody and not even knowing where I was at, I didn’t know it was Tyler,” Perez said. “I came with my husband with nothing, basically nothing, just a suitcase, a lot of dreams and a lot of hope. We started our life here, we didn’t know anybody, we didn’t have family or friends, we had nothing.”

Berlingeri came from Puerto Rico to the U.S. almost two decades ago, but came to East Texas six years ago.

Although both come from different places, both met in East Texas through their home-based cooking businesses where they were selling food items from their home countries. Through food exchanges, they decided to collaborate and open a much-needed business that will expose their food to a greater audience.

“Tyler needed a place like this. Even though there’s a lot of Latin places like tacos and that type of food, there was a business missing of another Latin place,” Perez said.

Since opening in December, patrons’ taste buds have traveled to experience a new flavor and the business has been getting good feedback from East Texas residents, said Berlingeri.

Menu items for now include a variety of desserts and savory items such as arepas, empanadas (beef, chicken and cheese), pastelitos (chicken, beef and cheese and guava), tequeños, cachitos, profiteroles, Venezuelan style tres leches cake, lemon bread, quesitos, and more.

The bakery also plans to sell full traditional plates in the future, said Berlingeri. The store is open from Monday to Saturday from 11 a.m. to 7 p.m. and Sunday from 9 a.m. to 2 p.m., and is located at 2443 Mosaic Way at Suite A in Tyler.

For more information, call (903)- 630-3009 or visit their Facebook page at Lemon Yellow Latin Bites. The restaurant has indoor seating and offers to-go and a drive-thru option.