HARLINGEN – If you’re a fan of Spanish wine, olive oil and things rare to the Texas palate, you don’t have to travel across the ocean any longer.
You don’t even have to leave Harlingen.
Dos Olivos Market just opened its doors at 6710 W. Expressway 83, and visitors poured in to sample the ambience and novelty of a market and restaurant with not only Spanish delicacies but Texas beer and barbecue.
Along two walls stood racks of enticing French wines, and in the market area visitors marveled at such Spanish products as Vinagre de Vino and Vinagre Balsamico Rosado; right alongside those intriguing items they also found Honey Red Grilling Glaze from Fredricksburg.
“Dos Olivos is an original marketplace that welcomes our guests and everyone to encounter a learning experience from wine, beer, menu,” said Rebecca Varela, co-owner.
“We just want to offer everybody something new, something different, whether it’s trying a new wine, an international wine that they’ve never seen before or in Texas, or local wines, or beer.”
Varela and her father Rafael opened the company in 2018 in Central Texas. With the success of three locations, Varela, a Brownsville native, decided the time was right for a Valley location.
“Our food is very old world tradition,” Varela said. “We like to get very traditional ingredients, dishes, and then give them that modern feel.”
She referred to one particular dish as a good representation of the company’s mission: barbacoa donuts.
“Barbacoa is very Mexican and traditional,” she said. “We actually top it on a blue corn jalapeno donut.”
She laughed and added, “It is interesting and a good representation of who we are as a business.”
A table draped with a cloth bearing the words, “Alta Gama Foods” displayed several bottles of virgin olive oil, potato chips, and fine sardines. Carlos Armando Varela, importer and wholesale services manager for the Spanish products at Dos Olivos, eagerly gave explanations and demonstrations.
“This is acebuche olive oil,” he said, pouring it into a cup to be sampled by intrigued and eager palates, showing them how the oil could enhance the flavors of orange chunk seasoned with black river salt.
“Acebuche is a wild product,” Varela said. “What I mean by that is the olive trees are not planted. They grow naturally in that part of southern Spain.”
Cathy Dittman was impressed.
“I love to try new things,” she said, glancing now at the refreshing new products from Texas and Spain crowding the shelves.
“It’s definitely very high quality olive oil,” Dittman said. “I am excited for Harlingen to have such a high quality place.”
Live music now filled the dining area as customers sat down to browse a menu with such tantalizing items as roasted oysters, squid ink carbonara, pork schnitzel, truffle mac n’ cheese …
A new kind of spice in the continuously changing palate of Valley cuisine.
