The cafe features a wide array of Argentinian foods and products.[/caption]What started out as an at-home catering business run by Liliana Ruocco has now blossomed into Bodegon del Sur, an Argentinian cafe she runs with her son Jonathan.
“We started selling pizzas and empanadas, and it just progressed from there,” Jonathan said. “We started doing it at home, and [the business] got way bigger.”
He attributes the growth in demand of the cafe’s products to the large Argentine population in the Greater Houston area. One item that is especially popular with customers is the take-home pizza, he said, which is partially baked and prepared with homemade dough.
“Everything we make is from scratch,” Jonathan said. “We make the dough from scratch. It’s made like we make [pizzas] in Argentina.”
Liliana speaks Spanish only so Jonathan translated her insistence that it be known the crust on the cafe’s takeout pizza is “crunchy.”
“You know how you to go Domino’s, and you go to Little Caesars, and you pick up the pizza slice and the pizza drops down?” Jonathan said. “Ours doesn’t. Ours stays.”
Bodegon del Sur, which means “pantry of the south” in Spanish, sells mate gourds for brewing yerba mate, a popular drink in Argentina. The store’s grocery also offers yerba mate. Some might compare the flavor of the drink to tea, but Liliana shakes her head at the suggestion.
“It’s not tea,” Jonathan said. “It’s yerba mate.”
He said different yerba mate drinks have different flavors, depending on additional flavorings. The flavor can be altered by the amount of sugar people use, too, a popular addition to the drink.
In addition to pizzas, the cafe’s menu also includes empanadas, desserts and the sandwich de milanesa, a chicken specialty of Bodegon del Sur.
“It’s breaded and it’s baked in the oven, and it’s a huge sandwich,” Jonathan said. “It’s humongous.”
He described the difference between the way the sandwich de milanesa is prepared compared to typical American chicken dishes.
“If you go to a regular restaurant, and you get a country-fried steak, it’s basically all grease,” he said. “This is not. It’s a thick piece of chicken, and it’s baked, not fried.”
Jonathan said Argentine expatriates often visit the cafe to buy authentic dulce de leche and Havanna brand galletitas—or small cookies—and alfajores, a fusion of a macaron and a cake. But the big draw to the store’s pantry is the blood sausage, he said.
“There’s a lot of people that come in just for that,” Jonathan said. “Because there’s a big difference between the sausage that you sell here and then the sausage that we sell. There’s a huge flavor difference.”
Fresh handmade items
Empanadas: beef, chicken, spinach and ham & cheeses, single ($2.20), by the dozen ($24.00)
Quiche: zucchini, spinach, ham & cheese ($3.99)
Sandwich de Milanesa: breaded chicken sandwich with lettuce, tomatoes onions and mayonnaise ($6.99)
Desserts
Pasta frola de membrillo: baked pie made with quince jam ($13)
Pionono de dulce de leche: sponge roll cake filled with dulce de leche ($19.90)
Alfajores de Maicena: Argentenine snack consisting of two soft corn flour cookies held together by a thin layer of dulce de leche, 6 ($6), 12 ($9.50)
Bodegon del Sur, 26506 Oak Ridge Drive, Spring, 832-813-8334, www.bodegondelsur.com
Hours: Mon.-Fri. 9 a.m.-6 p.m., Sat. 10 a.m.-2 p.m.
