COLUMBIA — Owners of Paella’South, a Venezuelan food tent that largely operates at the weekly Soda City Market on Main Street in Columbia, will open an arepas-centric restaurant in the heart of downtown in November.
Arepa South by Paella’South will officially open its brick-and-mortar location at 1212 Hampton St. Nov. 17, making it one of the few restaurants in Columbia to focus on Venezuelan cuisine.
“This is the first restaurant in Columbia that has arepas,” restaurant co-owner Ana Gutierrez said. “At Soda City, there are four vendors that have arepas, but nobody has a restaurant so this is the first restaurant in the city that’ll have arepas and Venezuelans food.”
Most of Columbia’s Latin street food offerings can be found in food trucks and mobile operations, most of which set up at Soda City Market. Arepa South will become one of several of the market’s regular vendors to open a full-service restaurant after operating a mobile operation at the weekly event.
It joins others at the market that’ve made the transition — Rambo’s Fat Cat Biscuits began setting up at the market in 2018. By 2020, owners of the biscuit spot had opened a physical location on North Main. And The Donut Guy, which regularly sets up at the market, has opened two locations in Columbia — one in the Vista and one at the Village at Sandhill.
The weekly market, which began in 2005, has become a small-business incubator. It allows for new business owners to try out their concepts before taking the bigger risk of leasing a business space.
“Soda City is everything for us,” Gutierrez said. “Without Soda City, I think we’d be nothing. They have been so supportive to us.”
Four years ago, Gutierrez and Pedro Figueredo were interested in a small business space on Hampton Street that sat vacant. The pair owned Paella’South and were looking for a permanent home.
But, at the time, it didn’t make sense for them to open a physical location, so they landed on a food tent at Soda City.
“Selling paella was very hard at the beginning, now we have 300 people come on Saturday,” Gutierrez said. “But, at the beginning it was so hard to sell paella.” The city wasn’t quite ready for Venezuelan street food like what the food tent was offering.
Paella is a rice dish that originated in Valencia and takes it name from the type of wide, narrow pan that’s used to cook the cuisine over an open flame. Watching a cook prepare the centuries-old dish on the street is a part of what made Paella’South’s operation a success.
But as the pair prepare to open a brick-and-mortar space, they’ll focus on offering arepas instead. Arepa is a South American dish. Its dough is made from ground corn, which is then filled with a variety of meat, vegetables and cheeses. Figueredo said he likes to make arepas following the traditional methods, but using fillings that are more similar to Southern U.S. cuisine.
Gutierrez said the idea for Arepa South is to combine Venezuelan, Spanish and American cuisine and will give customers pre-made Arepa options or the ability to build their own. They’ll also offer Venezuelan Lasagna and a variety of rice bowls.
The restaurant will mostly focus on lunch. A soft-opening will be held Oct. 22 and a grand opening will take place Nov. 17. When it opens in mid-November, the hours will be Monday through Friday from 10 a.m. until 2 p.m. and Saturday from 9 a.m. until 1:30 p.m. The restaurant will be closed on Sundays.