Start with empanadas. Then dig deeper into Colombian food at this new Eastside restaurant
Fried smashed plantains and starchy white-corn arepas dot most every dish at El Parche Colombiano, a six-month-old restaurant in Tacoma’s McKinley Hill neighborhood. They are the tortilla, the rice, the crusty bread of a South American cuisine imbued with Caribbean and Spanish hallmarks and rooted in indigenous ingredients.
Here in the picada, they coordinate — as if they were all in on the dress code — with chunks of chicharron, yucca and papa criolla, a bite-sized Andean potato. Heaped with chorizo, grilled skirt steak and morcilla, a spiced Spanish blood sausage, the menu says it serves two, but this mass of fried delights, amid scattered onions and tomato slices, could easily feed six.
Sipping on an aguardiente mojito, mint muddled in the glass at a cabana-style bar, you’ll be glad you started only with empanadas. Those yellow corn crescents are shaped by hand and filled with potato and either pulled chicken, steak or cheese. Get acquainted with the accompanying aji, an annoyingly simple but endlessly satisfying condiment of cilantro, scallions, onions, tomato and serranos. A bit of olive oil, vinegar, lime and salt, said co-owner Mario Medina, and you’ll ask for another ramekin when the picada arrives.
Medina opened the Tacoma restaurant last November with his wife Maria. It follows their Seattle restaurant, which they introduced to Pinehurst in 2018. Her family has long been in the business, operating several Mexican and American eateries in the Seattle area. Incidentally, neither is from Colombia.
“I have a lot of Colombian friends,” laughed Mario Medina. They kept telling him, “There’s nowhere to get Colombian food in Seattle. So I thought, I’ll open that!”
He traveled to Colombian restaurants across the United States, from Miami to Denver to California. He visited the country of 50 million people, exploring the cuisine with friends’ families.
“I started to learn the food,” he said, pocketing a little something from each experience.
Medina’s bandeja paisa, a national dish, features stewed beans, rice and a fried egg; chorizo, chicharron, and steak; maduros, tostones and a housemade arepa. It differs by region and family, sometimes subbing spiced shredded beef for steak, a luxury, or even trout.
The result at El Parche sticks with the hearty Colombian staples that have come to characterize the cuisine outside its borders: starches, corn, plantains and meat.
EXPLORE COLOMBIAN FOOD AT EL PARCHE TACOMA
On a return visit, if you can muster the courage to not order the empanadas — “everyone orders empanadas,” said Medina, estimating they make about 800 per week in Tacoma and 1,200 in Seattle — choose a meat to top a few arepas, similar to the Mexican tostada.
Likewise, the patacon section might intrigue for its burger entry. Two fried green plantains sandwich a ground beef patty, accentuated by a tomato-mayo sauce (fry sauce, if you will) and the standard LTO. This concoction harkens to a street food credited to nearby Venezuela, but it’s also resonant of a Puerto Rican/American creation, by way of Chicago, known as the jibarito. If handhelds seem daunting, prep the silverware for the open-faced patacones, piled high with skirt steak, bell peppers and avocado.
Other favorites include the bagre guisado, a catfish stew, the bistec a cebolla (skirt steak with two over-easy eggs, plantains and rice) and the churrasco, a butterflied strip steak served on a board.
Despite the meat-heavy reputation some South American cuisines seem to carry in the United States, dishes are commonly served with potatoes or yucca, rice and a salad of romaine with red onion and tomato slices. In fact, said Medina, meat would be rather decadent, especially for breakfast, which the restaurant offers all day.
Perhaps one of the most interesting things about El Parche is that vegetarians have choices. There are veggie-only patacones, a couple of salads, several sides and even a picada that subs meat for more papas, maduros (sweet plantains), broccoli, carrots and peppers, sauteed and served with guacamole.
The exterior of 6324 E. McKinley Ave. has been painted black and gray, with large roll-up windows installed on either side of the doorway, urging a festive atmosphere. Inside, the walls are paneled and painted in the cheery colors of the Colombian flag: canary yellow, royal blue, and cardinal red. A pollera, the ruffled folk dress with a wide flowing skirt, hangs along with soccer jerseys and mini Willys Jeeps, a ubiquitous sight in Colombia. The four-wheel drives became essential for farmers towing coffee, supplies and whatever else to and from town.
It feels poised for celebration, or at least a mojito with fresh mint — muddled by Maria Medina on weekends — and a generous pour of aguardiente, a clear cane spirit that originated in the Iberian Peninsula. Considered a precursor to rum but tinged with a subtle anise flavor, it’s still favored in parts of Latin America, including Colombia, Brazil, Ecuador, Panama and Costa Rica.
Medina takes great pride in the fresh juice — blackberry, passionfruit, guava, guanabana — available to sip solo or in a cocktail.
On one visit, the sweet server recommended a Refajo (not listed on the menu), a classic combo of crisp Colombian lager and cola.
Online ordering is available and takeout has grown, said Medina, but he prefers “that people come here for the experience.” There’s live music on Saturday and Sunday nights, which, if a crowd amasses at the Tacoma restaurant, might blossom into the “dancing in the aisles” oft-seen at its Seattle sibling.
EL PARCHE COLOMBIANO - TACOMA
▪ 6324 E. McKinley Ave., Tacoma, 253-507-8517, elparchecolombiano.com
▪ Wednesday-Monday 11 a.m.-10 p.m. (closed Tuesday)
▪ Details: traditional Colombian dishes in colorful, family-friendly setting, plus full bar
▪ What to order: empanadas, $7.99 for three; patacon pisao, $11.99; bandeja paisa, $16.99; picada for 2, $21.99; aguardiente mojito, $8.50
This story was originally published May 27, 2022 at 5:00 AM.