On March 10, Paseo Tapas and Wine Bar owners – Daniel Lopez and Camilo Franco – held a sneak peek event to showcase their upcoming space in The Commons.
With a name like “Paseo,” which translates to “a stroll,” the Unity Park food hall seemed like an appropriate satellite for its existing catering concept. The catering kitchen is located at 404 Cedar Lane Road, further northwest along the Prisma Health Swamp Rabbit Trail.
Paseo’s cuisine and wine offerings are Spanish in identity and invoke a sense of purism for its heritage.
“So many times, Spanish wine gets overlooked ,” Lopez said. “A lot of people think, also, of Spanish food as South American food, which is drastically different.”
Lopez was raised in Spain. Franco is of Ecuadorian and Cuban descent but his mother’s ancestry can be traced back to Sevilla. Growing up, he would help his mom in the kitchen, nurturing a love for cuisine that was amplified when Lopez and Franco began a tradition of cooking Sunday dinner together.
Paseo’s location in The Commons is their way of bringing some of those Sunday dinners to Greenville.
The menu offers items that are candid and creative like guildas, montaditos and almogrote gomero. During the March 10 event, Lopez explained the origin of the dish’s individual ingredients and how it represented different regions in the Mediterranean country.
Guildas, for example, are a skewered tapa popular in northern Spain. Its ingredients include high-quality anchovies cured in olive oil, olives from the middle of the nation and piparra peppers from the northern community of Galicia. It’s a single-bite item that packs a savory flavor with a spicy bite on the back end.
The goal is to create an unique but homey experience that is true to its roots. The tapas aren’t massive but if you order the whole menu, you can easily find yourself with a meal rich in a variety of flavor and texture.
As guests go through the list, they may order a well-paired glass of wine. The partners want to curate a space that dares its guests to push boundaries.
“We want to bring something that’s simple, delicious, comforting – makes you think of, like for us, home – but for a lot of other people, it’s a brand-new experience” Franco said.
The catering component has become widely known for its paella. The paella won’t be a regular fixture on the menu at The Commons but will be featured on special occasions for “paella on the patio.”
The bar is scheduled to open later in March. The Commons is located at 147 Welborn St. in Unity Park.
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