Today we’d like to introduce you to Jessica Kate-Martinez.
Thanks for sharing your story with us Jessica. So, let’s start at the beginning and we can move on from there.
I’m originally from San Antonio but moved to the Northeast for school and fell in love with life up there. I actually went to school to follow in the footsteps of others in my family to enter the medical field. I went to the University of Maryland where I majored in women’s gender studies and biochemistry with hopes of eventually becoming a cardio thoracic surgeon. The human heart was always fascinating to me.
I moved to Dallas to take care of my grandparents and got a restaurant job on the side when I moved here. I worked in restaurants while I was in Maryland too, both front of the house and back of the house. In the kitchen, I gravitated towards pastry because I was drawn to its scientific and structured nature. When I started working in Dallas, I really saw the opportunity that was in the restaurant business. The food, the wine – it all drew me in. I started exploring wine, fell in love with it and realized this is what I was meant to do with my career.
Once I decided wine was my passion, I spent time at Casa Rubia and FT33 where I helped compose the wine list and collaborate on the wine program. I was exploring moving to Oregon at the time to focus on making wine full time but then Trinity Groves approached me to open a restaurant that focused on the Spanish style of dining known as tapas. I knew this opportunity wouldn’t come again so I jumped at it. My maternal side has roots in the Catalonia area of Spain and I traveled there quite a bit getting to know the culture. I also had the opportunity to explore the wine regions in Spain, meeting the people who make the wine and getting a feel for the land where the grapes are grown. I took that experience to develop a food and wine program for Tapas Castile that focuses on the best of what Spain has to offer. We have an extensive Spanish beverage list and I love educating people about the unique wine and beverages from this area of the world.
We’re always bombarded by how great it is to pursue your passion, etc – but we’ve spoken with enough people to know that it’s not always easy. Overall, would you say things have been easy for you?
As a small business owner, I feel the pressure that many others do of running a business, especially a restaurant business, with how many dining options there are in Dallas. When you own your first business, there’s no rule book. So what we’ve decided to do is focus on the hospitality and make sure every one of our guests is happy. We provide regular workshops for our employees on food and service so they can help tell the customer about what we are trying to do at Tapas Castile. I’m truly lucky because I’ve never felt like this is work because it’s what I love to do. When I first started in the restaurant business, I was working seven days a week because I wanted to learn as much as I could from the best chefs in Dallas. I spent time working with Kate Weiser, another business owner in Trinity Groves, to learn chocolate. I traveled to visit wineries, worked harvests, and later helped to blend and bottle some of those wines, so I could fully immerse myself in the experience. I feel lucky that I get to do this every day.
So let’s switch gears a bit and go into the Tapas Castile story. Tell us more about the business.
Tapas Castile is a modern take on the traditional Spanish tapas bar with a farm-to-table menu offering rustic renditions of iconic favorites, using local, seasonal Texas produce and ethically sourced Spanish products. We import items from Spain like meats, cheeses and spices and also make a few meats and cheeses in house. We take local produce and utilize preservation techniques, so we can use homemade pickles on the charcuterie boards, jams on desserts, and pickled vegetables on dishes to help strike the perfect balance. We add new items seasonally to showcase produce that is at its peak freshness. Right now, we are featuring pan con tomate because of the flavorful Texas summer tomatoes. If you follow us on Instagram, we’ll let you know about unique Spanish wines that we get in for a limited time only. We want everything we put in front of a customer, from the food to the wine, to be of the highest quality.
I’m most proud of my staff. Being a woman business owner, I get the amazing opportunity to mentor other women in the business. There is nothing better than seeing others be successful from the help you give them. I love seeing our staff move to bigger roles within the restaurant and feeling like they have the confidence to guide our guests through the food and wine selections.
One of the unique aspects of Tapas Castile is how we focus on product knowledge. On Saturday’s, we’ll ask the chefs to talk about a particular dish on the menu and the context of it to immerse our employees in what we serve. The thought behind why an item is on the menu and where the food is from is extremely important. We’ll let them taste new food and ask questions about why it’s been added to the menu. Since we have a wine list that is mostly from Spain, we help our staff understand the different grape varietals and teach them how to explain it to a guest who may be unfamiliar with wine from this region. If our servers have a passion for the product, it translates into a better experience for the customer. We want all of our guests to not just enjoy the food, but to walk away saying “wow.”
Tapas Castile has been open for less than a year, so I am looking forward to continuing to grow the restaurant and introduce tapas to people who haven’t experienced this way of dining before. One of the best parts about what I do is getting to be an ambassador for Spain and showcasing how approachable and affordable the food and wine is from this amazing country. The best part of experiencing tapas is getting together with friends and ordering several dishes for the entire table to share throughout the evening. I love being able to get new, different products in front of people and helping them have a new experience with food and wine. I hope to also one day try my hand in winemaking.
Contact Info:
- Address: 3011 Gulden Lane
Suite 116 Dallas, TX 75212 - Website: tapascastile.com
- Phone: 214-295-2717
- Email: [email protected]
- Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/castiledallas/
- Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/castiledallas/
- Yelp: https://www.yelp.com/biz/tapas-castile-dallas
- Other: For reservations: https://www.opentable.com/r/tapas-castile-dallas?page=1
Image Credit:
Katherine Chiu
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