Alma Pan-Latin Kitchen Brings New Flavor to East End

Jamie Wallace is weaving a new cultural thread with Alma Pan-Latin Kitchen, an upcoming restaurant and cantina that emphasizes the African influences in Latin American cuisine.

A direct complement to Wallace’s other restaurant, the Ethiopian-based Abay, which opened in 2004 in the Penn Circle area, Alma, which means soul in Spanish, will take patrons to the root of Pan-Latin dishes.

“Only about 500,000 Africans were brought to North America via the slave trade, but you have about nine and a half million that go to Latin America and the Carribean,” Wallace of Point Breeze said. “From the shear magnitude of people, you know they had to have a tremendous influence on the culture.”

Highlighting that influence and making it shine is the goal at Alma Pan-Latin Kitchen, where Chef Martine Lamarche, who has experience in some of the greatest kitchens in North America, is creating the menu.

The restaurant side of Alma, located at Forbes and Braddock Avenues, is slated to open on June 21 or 22, while the cantina side at the Forbes entrance will open a few weeks later.

“For me, it’s a blessing that Jamie has come up with this idea because my father is from the Dominican Republic and my mother is from Guatamala, so I said to him the other day, ‘I am this concept -- I am Pan-Latin,’” Lamarche said. “It gives me an opportunity to be auto-educated and I can teach myself about my own roots and take it much further than I ever thought of -- my roots go all the way back to Africa.”

Wallace said he didn’t grow up with the goal of owning a restaurant. For him, it’s all about a cultural connection and the chance to add to what Pittsburgh has to offer.

“What I am passionate about is traveling and immersing myself in different cultures,” Wallace said. “When I opened Abay, the cultural component was really critical to me in the fact that I was bringing something to Pittsburgh that wasn’t here. I look at it as a cultural venue first and foremost that happens to be a restaurant.”

Lamarche started working at a taco place at 13 years old as a dishwasher and said he left that job for one at a “better taco place.” Before he knew it, he was the sous chef at the Occidental Grill in Washington, D.C., one of the city’s most well known establishments, just across the street from the White House.

“I had never been to culinary school and I just felt raw at that time, so I thought, ‘I am going to take a step back,’” Lamarche said.

From there, he took a job as a line cook at the Inn at Little Washington, a rare 5-star, 5-diamond property.

“It was the best choice I could have made at that point, especially being a guy who never went to culinary school,” he said. “Then, I went to Restaurant Terra in Napa Valley.”

Lamarche also has opened two restaurants independently in Fredericksburg, Virginia called “Jake and Mike’s,” named after his brother’s two oldest sons, followed by “Soup and Taco.” He sold them after five years, took some time off and went to caddy school for golf in Arizona. It didn’t take long for him to get back in the business.

He moved to Pittsburgh after meeting his wife, a native, while he worked in the Hamptons.

“I took a summer job and there she was,” Lamarche said.

Lamarche is creating a menu for Alma that will include chicken and rice dishes, roasted Cuban beef dishes, vegetarian options with a lot of avocado, cabbage and more. A featured dessert will be coconut flawn and traditional Latin cakes.

The cantina side will offer cocktails and smaller bites, along with the option of eating from the regular menu as well.

“There isn’t anything like this and I think there should be, and it makes the city a cooler place,” Wallace said. “It’s like one more thing that’s here that is an interesting spot. It can be one more feather in the Pittsburgh cap.”

Lamarche is looking forward to highlighting the subtle, flavorful influences of Africa at Alma, while at the same time, creating a deeper connection with his own ancestry.

“You can’t exist as a person of Latin descent without understanding the influence of Africa - it’s paramount to who you are,” he said.

For more information, visit www.almapgh.com or click here.