By Roy Martinez
Larry and Jessica Delgado are not only husband and wife, they are partners, entrepreneurs, restaurateurs and last month they were selected as the volunteers of the year by the McAllen Chamber of Commerce. The award was presented to them at the Chamber’s Man and Woman of the year Gala. This is not the first accolade this couple has received according to Jessica, “we were chosen to receive the Small Business Administration’s persons of the year award for the region, that was pretty awesome and completely unexpected. “ She adds, “We have had a really amazing five years. We love this community and we are passionate about it and makes us want to volunteer more and make it better for everyone. And it is our duty for all of us to do that.”
Jessica and Larry own and operate House. Wine. & Bistro, Larry points out the restaurant was opened five years ago, “So we opened House. Wine as a wine lounge/furniture store, that’s why it is punctuated as it is House. Wine. this particular store was half furniture and home accessories half wine lounge so it was 2008 when we opened and the economy was not the best for selling furniture, what we didn’t realize was that particular niche was already taken, there were several unique stores that pretty much had a hold on that market unique upscale home furniture, so we struggled. “But they did not waver in their commitment. In fact Larry had to take a job for a year to keep the place open, ultimately it succeeded.
The restaurant business is what they know and love, Larry says, “We literally grew up in the industry, getting our first job when we were in our late teens and working up the ladder so to speak, acquiring more responsibilities and higher positions till we were eventually offered positions to buy into our prospective restaurants in Austin as managing partners. So we became managing partners for Carrabba’s Italian Grill in Austin and we spent most of our twenties managing restaurants for them.”
House. Wine. has been such a success that Larry and Jessica are now opening a second restaurant just a few blocks away called SALT. The new restaurant is located on Main Street in the art district. It will feature what they call Contemporary American. Says Larry, “In different parts of America we have become accustom to Asian food, Mediterranean food, so the idea of new American is to take flavors from different cultures and create new dishes, unique dishes that may remind you of a particular region, not necessarily the dishes from that region but the flavors of those cultural cuisines and that is what we intend to do.”
Jessica says, “The most exciting thing about the restaurant is it will have a chef’s bar. We will have an open exhibition kitchen, the guest see into the kitchen the kitchen sees into the dining area and we will have eight seats at the bar where you can dine with the chef in front of you.” SALT just opened its doors December 2nd.
When asked about what is most important in their lives, Jessica is first to speak, “My husband, ”Larry chimes in, “You Stole mine.” As they laugh, she adds,” it’s difficult to work with each other, it’s awesome to work with each other, I would not trade it for the world. I have the smartest, most passionate, hardworking partner, husband that I can have and it works great for us.”
Larry adds, “The most important thing for me is for my wife to realize her dreams and her visions, I challenge any marriage to go through a couple of restaurant openings, if you can make it through that you can make through anything.”
Wine. House. Bistro is located at 117 West Business 83 in McAllen. SALT is at 210 North Main caddy corner from the Casa De Palmas Hotel in McAllen.
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