Category Archives: Food & Entertainment

Entrepreneurs Build Partnership Via Friendship

Waffle and ice cream combos and tall cool drinks are among the menu choices at The Dolly Llama. (Courtesy)

Anna Gomez and Deborah Rios were the best of friends before deciding to become business partners. Friendship and business don’t always mix but this is a partnership that works. Gomez is a banker by profession and manages a branch bank in north McAllen. Rios is a teacher in Edinburg who co-owns a business with her husband. They had previously bandied about the idea of someday going into business together. For…

Read More

Pluton Brews Up Success In Brownsville

Daniel Arizpe, foreground, and Diego Garcia

Brownsville’s band of brewery brothers is inching closer to opening the city’s first soup-to-nuts craft beer business. The Pluton Brewery Company is nearing completion of its 5,280-square-foot building on 805 E. Elizabeth in the city’s downtown. It’s a long time coming for Daniel Arizpe and Joey Martinez along with their partners and team of employees. They are taking their dream from making beer in the garage of a west Brownsville…

Read More

Roast House Goes Big In Brownsville

Walk into The Roast House in downtown Brownsville and the first impression is how much space it occupies. The formerly cozy coffee shop on Alton Gloor Road in north Brownsville has grown dramatically since its move to downtown in the latter half of 2022. There’s 5,700 square feet of space put to use for community events, group meetings and of course, great coffee.  The Roast House is a “full-blown coffee…

Read More

Entrepreneur Goes ‘Savage Not Average’

The variety of hot dogs at Qweenie are "savage not average."

Kimberly Avila had a college degree in hand, a bachelors in cognitive psychology, and worked in law offices and as a car sales manager among a variety of jobs tried. Nothing in those employment fields, or others she could think of, felt or sounded fulfilling. Avila then decided to go way outside of her comfort zone and venture into something her parents warned had little chance of being successful. Avila…

Read More

Sir’s Features Great Drinks & Family Ties

Sir's features a wide variety of adult beverages made by a business owner and staff with years of experience in the business. (Courtesy)

Jesus Pena and his big sisters Carmina and Sonia knew the sights and sounds of the downtown Harlingen of their growing up years.  They grew up on Monroe Street, within walking distance of downtown, as well as their schools, churches and stores. Jesus recalled a neighborhood barber shop on Van Buren Street where his father took him as a child. It’s just down the street from the former barber shop…

Read More

Don Gollito Serves It Up “Harlingen-Style”

The block of West Van Buren Street where Don Gollito sits in Harlingen stirs a nostalgic feel. The Tex-Mex restaurant is down home all the way, “Harlingen-style,” as one of its owners, Fred Uribe, puts it. He co-owns the restaurant with Rick Silva, a self-described “jack-of-all-trades” of the local restaurant scene. On Van Buren, vehicles park at an angle that’s reminiscent of small-town America of previous eras. It’s appropriate since…

Read More

Brownsville Bakers Find Sweet Spot With H-E-B

Manuel Alvarez and his wife, Nadia Escalante, sit at their display at H-E-B offices in highlighting their Japanese cheesecakes. (Courtesy)

Manuel Alvarez and his wife, Nadia Escalante, started out with an at-home bakery in Brownsville, creating their Pastel Japones. Said another way, they are Japanese cotton cheesecakes. The popularity of the fluffy sponge-looking cake would take off. In part it was due to the uniqueness of the product in the Rio Grande Valley market. It’s a region filled with pan dulce shops and custom cake bakeries.  It’s difficult to find…

Read More

Return Of Citrus Thrills Edinburg

Rows of original Citrus seats hold cherished memories for many Edinburg natives. (Courtesy)

Nick Cantu makes his way up the back stairs of the old Citrus Theater. If walls could only talk, the stories the eight-decades-old movie house could tell.  In an upstairs hallway, Cantu points to a room where he said the original owner of the Citrus, a doctor, practiced medicine in World War II-era Edinburg. For decades, the Citrus played the role of the hometown single-screen theater. The multi-screen movie plexes…

Read More

Restaurateur Finds Bliss In Mercedes

The open face Bliss burgers were called by one diner as the ‘best burger in Texas.’ (Courtesy)

Cindy Avalos got through a challenging 2020 that as a restaurant manager meant overseeing thin staff doing the work of many as her industry struggled to survive with pick up and delivery orders. For Avalos, it was a continuation of a career working in restaurants that started in her childhood in Harlingen, helping her parents with a Mexican food restaurant. “I have it in my bones,” she said of working…

Read More