Inside Barlata, a tapas restaurant tucked into the corner storefront of a mixed-use development, there is Spanish music playing from the speakers, World Cup soccer on the television and brisket on the menu.

The menu is based in Catalan techniques, from the Catalonia region in Spain, which includes Barcelona. But it is influenced by the local culture, too.

“I came [to the U.S.] at 18 years old,” chef and owner Daniel Olivella said. “My uncle brought me over because I was a troublemaker in Spain.”

Olivella worked at his uncle’s restaurant in Chicago while studying music. Eventually, he decided to pursue cooking full time. After moving to San Francisco, he worked at restaurants such as Zuni Cafe, which was at the forefront of the farm-to-table movement.

“That’s where I learned everything,” Olivella said.

In 1999, he opened his first restaurant, B44 Catalan Bistro in San Francisco, followed by a second—Barlata Tapas Bar in Oakland—in 2007.

After the recession hit, Olivella sold the original Barlata location and moved with his family to Austin. He had visited the city to teach cooking classes at Central Market and appreciated the city’s young population and what he called its “open” palate.

“People move here to eat,” he said.

In 2012, Olivella and his wife, Vanessa Jerez, opened Barlata on South Lamar Boulevard.

Its menu includes seared Iberico tenderloin from the Iberian Peninsula—which includes Spain and Portugal—served with migas and chorizo, and eight types of paella, a traditional Spanish dish made with rice.

As a line cook at Zuni Cafe, Olivella learned to use precooked rice when making risotto, a technique he has applied to the paella at his own restaurant to minimize the time customers spend waiting for their food.

“In Spain everybody makes paella differently,” he said, comparing the dish to barbecue here in Texas.   Barlata seems to have struck the right balance, having established itself as one of the longer-standing restaurants along South Lamar between Barton Springs Road and Ben White Boulevard.

“This is a mom and pop shop,” he said. “It’s not a corporation.”