New Lake Highlands Latin Outpost Is Already a Neighborhood Staple

In Texas, we’ve grown accustomed to a certain degree of privilege when it comes to Mexican food options. Travel just a few hours outside of the state and you’ll soon realize it really isn’t like this everywhere else. No Mexican food stores in every suburb, no taquerias on every corner or inside every gas station. We’re spoiled, and that’s OK. But perhaps our riches have led us to overlook a glaring hole in the North Texas food scene: South American cuisine. 

Lucky for Dallas, brothers Esneyder and Richard Ospina have opened the first U.S. location of Unimarket, a Latin American one-stop shop for dinner, coffee or groceries to take home. Some 16 years after opening the first Unimarket in Calgary, Canada, where three locations remain, the brothers have officially gone international, transforming a Lake Highlands space that formerly housed a tanning salon into their home away from home. 

Richard still lives in Calgary, meaning the Dallas store will be manned by Esneyder, who moved here for his career as an electrical engineer. The two were born and raised in Colombia, and although without a formal culinary background or long-held family recipes, they drew inspiration from their country’s signature flavors. 

To the back left of the store, a small kitchen serves up an all-day menu full of Colombian flavors, as well as traditional classics from countries throughout South America. Right next to it, a coffee and pastry bar offers a wide variety of sweet and savory empanadas and a modest coffee selection, with in-house-roasted beans. 

“It’s the fire dance,” jokes Elizabeth, Esneyder’s wife, from the corner register as her young son rushes to get a better look. One of the cooks is flipping a huge pan of steak and peppers in a sort of pyrotechnic rhythm. It’s the lomo saltado, a Peruvian stir-fry style dish served with onions, rice and French fries. Unprompted, Esneyder brings it up as one of his favorites on the menu, and mentions that it’s been his lunch multiple times while manning the shop.

While the dish is being prepared, a quick perusal of Unimarket’s grocery section is quite thrilling. There are over 650 unique items from across South America, including Argentinian yerba mate, Brazilian sodas and a great selection of salsas. An iced dulce de leche latte from the coffee bar kept us sweet company before the lomo saltado came out.

When it did, it lived up to the owner’s hype. At $19.50, it’s an incredible quantity of steak, cooked perfectly, coming together like a maximalist version of fajitas. Not even 24 hours later, we returned for a horchata latte and sweet guava puff nightcap. As if we couldn’t get enough, we returned for yet another lunch just two days later, this time opting for a fantastic Colombian bowl with sweet plantains and chicharron, for just $12. 

We weren’t alone. During the first two meals (of what will likely be many more) at Unimarket, we spotted the same two older men having coffee both times, as well as two different family groupings coming in for lunch. After beginning a soft opening on Jan. 10, it appears Unimarket already has dedicated regulars, and we’re happy to be one of them. 

Currently, the restaurant’s soft opening hours are 7 a.m. to 7 p.m., but Esneyder says they will extend their hours to 6 a.m. to 9 p.m. for the official grand opening.

Unimarket, 7215 Skillman St.