Share a plate
Find your way to Junction Tapas and Wine Bar, now serving brunch, lunch, and dinner at 710 Pine St., Paso Robles. Visit @junctionpaso on Instagram to take a gander at what’s in store for your palate. Find an updated fall menu at junctionpaso.com in the coming weeks.
Paella made to order is a staple at Junction Tapas and Wine Bar in Paso Robles.
Cooked in a saffron stock that’s built from either roasted vegetables or roasted organic chicken bones simmered overnight, the fragrant Spanish dish made with Valencia rice, veggies, and meat is worth the 30 or 40 minutes a diner might wait for it, co-owner/chef Nick Holguin said.
“You get that intense flavor that you would only get when you cook a paella to order,” Holguin said. “The stock finds its way into a lot of things at the restaurant, and we’ve been doing that since we opened. … That’s really important to us—we try to use as little premade ingredients as possible.”
Heading into its third year just a few blocks from downtown’s City Park near the train station, Junction relies on as many local ingredients as possible for its shareable plates, tapas, Latin-inspired barbecue, and mains, rounding them out with others that need to come straight from the source. This includes importing saffron and Iberico pork from Spain and empanada dough from Argentina.
Holguin said Junction is about 90 percent Spanish influenced, thanks to his wife, who’s from the south of Spain, with Latin inspiration, thanks to his Mexican heritage and his wife’s Cuban heritage, and Mediterranean flavors.
For instance, Junction recently started dishing out empanadas stuffed with ropa vieja, brisket braised for 16 hours with peppers, onions, tomatoes, olive, cumin, paprika, and some other items. The empanadas are another showcase item for Holguin and his wife, Ingrid.
“We always have them; they’re always on the menu,” Holguin said, adding that the dough from Argentina makes the perfect package. “It’s just super flaky. … We bake them, so it’s just got that real nice pastry kind of crunch to it.”
Empanadas and paella will always be on the menu, but like many of the other dishes Junction serves, their flavors will rotate based on what’s in season and what’s available.
That seasonal rotation will continue with Junction’s latest venture: Mexico Ancestral, a pop-up that held its opening night on Oct. 8 and will take over the restaurant on nights that Junction is closed. Holguin said the chefs, one from Guerrero and one from Oaxaca, modernize ancient recipes that you can’t get at most Mexican restaurants in the area.
“Some of the food in Mexico is 1,000 years old and it still lives in the places that were not inhabited by Spanish conquest,” Holguin said. “This is a celebration of authentic, ancient food from Mexico.”
On Tuesdays and Wednesdays, you can find Mexico Ancestral serving up dishes like mole rosa from Taxco—a mole with spices, chocolate, and nuts that gets its color from beets—and chile en nogada—a stuffed poblano pepper served with walnut sauce and pomegranates.
“It’s just so good,” Holguin said.
And similar to Junction’s philosophy, what Mexico Ancestral serves will depend on what’s being harvested. Tomato season is coming to an end, and squash is in season, Holguin said, so look for squash in upcoming specials and expect to see Junction switch to a fall menu soon.
When they opened Junction, Holguin said, he and Ingrid had two things in mind. They wanted to provide experiences by serving food with a story, and they wanted it to be an incubator for creativity, which is how Mexico Ancestral was born. The pop-up aims to tell the story of ancient Mexican cuisine while Junction speaks of Spain and Cuba.
“We always have wanted to sort of support people that have talent, interest, desire, and spirit to create,” he said.
The couple made their foray into that creative spirit while still living in the Bay Area, when Holguin opened a catering business that’s still going strong: The Patio Kitchen, which he said was always Latin-inspired.
Holguin was in technology sales for 20 years before deciding to make the leap to follow his cuisine dreams, thanks to motivation from his wife to “pull the trigger.” Ingrid worked in local government and finance, he said, and as The Patio Kitchen started to take off, she also eventually made the switch.
Both grew up in families where food was a big focus, a space for the family to commune, share space, and interact. So having a catering business and restaurant is a natural fit.
“I love cooking. I love food. For me, cooking is really all about—it’s how I make people happy and feel good,” he said.
The plan was always to move to Paso, Holguin said, which they did in 2017, bringing The Patio Kitchen with them to cater in North County, at events such as weddings and wine events. Their goal was to open a restaurant when the time and space were right. In 2022, they got that chance.
Now, Junction is open for breakfast, brunch, lunch, and dinner, depending on what day of the week it is. Tortilla española (a Spanish frittata with potatoes and onions) and duo de pulpo (octopus two ways) sidle up next to seafood paella and pollo al mojo de ajo (roasted chicken with a Cuban white mojo sauce and congrà (seasoned rice with black beans and bacon). And all of it is as fresh as humanly possible.
“It’s very difficult to provide everything directly from providers here locally,” Holguin said. “We do try to provide as much produce and products within a 50-mile radius as possible. We’re very considerate and thoughtful of our carbon footprint.”
Junction gets olive oil from Olea Farm in Templeton in refillable metal containers, eggs from MJ Family Farms in Creston, produce from Rocking Chair Farm Markets in Kingsburg and Aviator Acres Farms in San Luis Obispo, and honey from Sierra Honey Farm in Paso Robles. The restaurant serves water in aluminum, rather than plastic, bottles, and showcases beers and wines from the Central Coast—as well as Spain’s famous Estrella Damm beer and Spanish wines.
Find a seat at the table by visiting junctionpaso.com. The restaurant is open for lunch Thursday through Monday from 11 a.m. to 2 p.m., dinner Thursday through Monday from 5 to 9 p.m., and brunch Friday through Sunday from 10 a.m. to 2 p.m. Δ
Correction: This article was updated to include the correct name of the farm where Junction gets its eggs—MJ Family Farms in Creston.
Editor Camillia Lanham eats her octopus two ways, sometimes three. Send food tips to clanham@newtimesslo.com.
This article appears in Pet Issue 2024.