South American cuisine in Siloam Springs
Tintos & Tapas offers customers the atmosphere and flavors of a South American cafe in downtown Siloam Springs.
The Colombian restaurant, owned by Jasmine Allgood and her husband Shawn Allgood, features traditional Latin inspired coffee drinks and Euro, Spanish and South American food served in an atmosphere that highlights authentic decor and music. The cafe, which is filled with natural light, even has a roll-up door that can be opened during the evening or on pleasant days.
“We wanted the environment to be where people could come and hang out, kind of like a cafe or bar in South America, really, really family friendly and just listen to good music and have a good tapa, and a good glass of wine, beer or soda,” she said.
The restaurant is named after several of its signature menu items. In Spanish, tinto means “inky water,” which can include a glass of red wine in Spain to coffee or tea in other countries, Allgood said. In Columbia, tinto refers to a coffee drink that is almost prepared like cowboy coffee, boiled in hot water, with some additional ingredients such as cinnamon and cloves, she said. A pinch of freshly shaved Colombian sugar cane is added to the coffee for a smooth, fragrant cup of black coffee that doesn’t need creamer, she said.
Tapas means appetizer or snack in Spanish, Allgood said. The main tapas the restaurant serves are empanadas, which Allgood described as little delicious turnovers filled with meat, herbs and potatoes served with aji sauce, or Colombian salsa. The restaurant also offers vegetarian, and guava and cheese flavored empanadas, she said.
Tintos & Tapas developed family-style meals, designed to feed four to six people, which include empanadas along with sides such as salad, rice, beans, chicken and plantain chips. Customers love the meals because the food just keeps coming and coming, Allgood said.
“It’s just a really enjoyable way of everyone sitting down, sharing food, talking, playing games and just having a really good time as a family or a lot of people come here for meetings or things like that,” she said. “It’s just a fun way of everyone eating together.”
The family-style meals helped make the initial transition to providing curbside service during the coronavirus shutdown easier, she said. However, several of the restaurant’s five staff members were impacted by other factors at the same time.
“One thing here at Tintos is our staff is a family,” she said. “Just like we treat our community as a family, we treat our staff as a family.”
Allgood made the decision to close the restaurant for a few weeks and reopened it with limited capacity on June 3.
Finding Siloam Springs
Tintos & Tapas was an idea 20 years in the making, Allgood said. She always dreamed of owning a restaurant, but never had the opportunity until her family moved to Siloam Springs about two years ago.
Allgood grew up in San Francisco but she and her husband moved around the country following his military career, living in locations such as Seattle, Wa., Virginia Beach, Va., Maryland and New York, she said. During this time, Allgood was busy working as a nurse and raising her young children — Jaiden and Kloie.
In 2012 Shawn Allgood retired from the U.S. Navy and the family first moved to Cabot, where they fell in love with Arkansas, before moving to Siloam Springs for a job opportunity for her husband and to be closer to friends.
“I have always wanted to open a small cafe or a small eatery,” she said. “My parents have had small cafes and eateries. … I have just always loved the restaurant business, I have always been attracted to it — food in general and coffee.”
She brought the idea to Kelsey Howard, then director of Main Street Siloam Springs, and also got feedback and support from other businesses in Siloam Springs.
“We were trying to be aware and make sure that what we brought wasn’t in direct competition with someone else,” she said. “We wanted to be fair, in a way, and we wanted to be something a little different so that Siloam has variety.”
Allgood’s parents, Anuar and Genny Ramirez, own a coffee farm in Columbia along with her brother and sister, who live in California. Initially, Allgood
wanted to import her parents’ coffee and sell it in her cafe, but negotiations with the co-op that her parents sell through didn’t work out, she said. She still has photos of their farm hanging in Tintos & Tapas and a picture of her parents is featured on the coffee beans she sells.
Running Tintos & Tapas is also a family affair. Allgood’s son, a 17-year-old soccer player at Siloam Springs High School, said he first learned to make empanadas when he was four or five and his grandparents would come visit. Even though his mom holds him to high standards, Jaiden said he enjoys being an employee in his family’s business. He also likes to bring his friends to hang out and drink coffee at the cafe.
“Because I have so much fun with (my mom), if I wanted to pursue a job in culinary arts, I could easily do that and I would love to do that,” he said.
Allgood’s daughter, 14, also likes to bring her friends to the restaurant and sometimes helps out with tasks such as making empanadas.
Community
Community and collaboration is built into Allgood’s business plan for Tintos & Tapas, she said. The restaurant tries to collaborate with as many local businesses as possible, and has worked with Pure Joy to create a Guava Sorbet, as well as with businesses such as Bad Dog Beanery, Ivory Bill Brewing, Cafe on Broadway and TC Screen Printing.
Allgood has also partnered with Confident Coffee Roasters in Johnson Ark., to create a perfect Colombian tinto, roasted specifically for Tintos & Tapas, which she also sells by the bag of coffee beans, she said.
Supporting other local businesses is important because collaboration builds community, Allgood said.
“It helps build a bond with our customers and with all the other local businesses and with that bond we get to build a support system for each other,” she said. “I think that is so important and I have seen that.”