Valdemar Estates, the Walla Walla-based winery of Rioja’s Valdemar Family, is opening a Spanish restaurant in downtown Woodinville. The restaurant is called Pintxo by Valdemar, pronounced ‘peen-cho.’ Pintxo is a Spanish word for small bite food, similar to tapas.
“The concept is small portions meant to be shared with family and friends,” says Valdemar CEO Jesús Martínez Bujanda Mora. “It’s going to be a Spanish style, and it will feel Spanish but with a twist.”
Martínez Bujanda’s experiences growing up inspired the idea. “In Rioja, where I used to live, I would go every Friday, usually with my sister, to the pintxo street. You go to a wine bar and you get one small portion, or one pintxo. Then you go to another one.”
The food at Pintxo by Valdemar will focus on traditional Spanish tapas made from both imported and local ingredients. The wine list, meanwhile, will focus heavily on Valdemar’s offerings from Rioja and Washington. There will also be cocktails and local beers on the menu.
The restaurant is spacious – 2,750-square feet plus a 1,500-square foot patio. Valdemar Estates originally opened a tasting room in the space in the spring of 2022. However, the winery decided to pivot to a restaurant, due in part to the size of the space.
“I think we can be more successful as a restaurant than as another tasting room,” Martínez Bujanda says. “There are a lot of tasting rooms already in Woodinville, but there are not enough food options and nothing with a Spanish feel.”
The restaurant is located in Wine Walk Row. This area is home to a number of tasting rooms, including the recently opened Mullan Road.
“I think we will complement that street way better [with the restaurant],” Martínez Bujanda says. “I think we’re going to attract a lot of people for dinner and lunch.”
Downtown Woodinville is currently a hotbed of development, with several hundred apartment units being constructed as well as dozens of townhouses. Along with nearby Woodin Creek, Wine Walk Row will bring a wine tasting experience both to locals who live in Woodinville and people from surrounding areas.
“That area is meant to be one of the hotspots in Woodinville for sure,” Martínez Bujanda says.
Valdemar Estates opened its winery in Walla Walla in 2019. The winery also has a restaurant that focuses on tapas and other food. The restaurant also has special, food-focused events, such as its ‘Party on the Patio’ on Sundays in the summer. For the event, the restaurant serves tapas and paella. Martínez Bujanda came up with the concept to increase traffic at what was typically a quiet time.
“Now it’s probably our busiest day of the week,” he says.
Pintxo by Valdemar had its soft opening last week. The restaurant’s hard opening is Thursday, September 14th. To start, the restaurant will be open in the later afternoons and evenings Wednesday through Friday. It will open at noon on weekends.
Since the start of the pandemic in 2020, many tasting rooms in Washington had to pivot to offering food in addition to wine. Some wineries have gone with pre-packaged options, while others have leveraged on-site commercial kitchens to provide a fuller menu. Valdemar is one of the few wineries in Washington to have a full-fledged restaurant at its Walla Walla winery. Even fewer have restaurants separated from the winery.
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Woodinville, as well as Walla Walla, can certainly use an influx of new dining experiences.