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Y ou might say a love of salsa inspired
Gloria Vargas to create Gloria’s
Secret Café in Downtown Beaverton.
Located on Broadway Street, Gloria’s
Secret Café offers Latin American
cuisine in an intimate, friendly
atmosphere.
“I do a flare of Latin American
cooking,” Vargas said, pointing out that Puerto
Rican-style black beans, Salvadoran-style
salad and saffron rice come with all her dishes.
Vargas, who was born and reared in El
Salvador, moved with her parents to Los
Angeles several years ago. “I grew up in
North Hollywood,” Vargas recalled. In
1979, she moved to
Portland, but finding
the Northwest a bit too
rainy, she moved back
to Southern California.
In 1993, Vargas was
northbound again. “I
decided to start selling
my salsa (15 different
kinds) at the Beaverton
Farmers Market — that’s how I got into this
kind of thing,” Vargas said, noting that the
most popular salsa was the traditional variety,
featuring tomatoes, cilantro and lemon juice.
After moving back to Portland, Vargas
rented a kitchen to produce her salsa, but when
the kitchen was sold, she built a new kitchen
at her present Broadway Street location so
she could continue cooking for the Farmers
Market and New Seasons Market. It’s that
kitchen that Vargas eventually turned into
Gloria’s Secret Café.
“When we opened, we realized that we had
topay for a restaurant licenceanyway,whether
we had a restaurant or not,” Vargas said. “So
my Dad and I decided to put four tables in here
while we were back there cooking.” Gloria’s
opened to the public in May 2003.
At Gloria’s, there isn’t a large cooking
staff. Vargas does it all. She said with a smile,
“Nobody else does the cooking. They couldn’t
sdo it. Are you kidding me?” Her grandson
Tristan helps by waiting tables and cleaning
dishes.
Sometimes Vargas has to make an early
morning run for ingredients.
Finding she was out of pork chuletas one
Friday, she had to get up early on Saturday,
go buy the pork and come back before the
restaurant opened.
The lunch menu features Gloria’s (chicken,
pork) tamales. This is a Salvadoran-style dish
featuring banana leaves. Masa corn flour is
teamed with Gloria’s special sauce. Vargas
said an item that is in big demand at her
restaurant isMango Habanero Chicken. These
are tender thighs cooked in habanero broth.
The menu states, “It’s got a kick, but it won’t
bite.” Tristan’s Beef Chipotle offers sirloin beef
chunks in a spicy chipotle sauce.
Dinner, which is by reservation for parties
of six or more, offers a scrumptious variety of
dishes. Wild Salmon Taco has pan-fried wild
salmon with cream chipotle. Shrimp Paella is
a saffron rice dish from Spain, which includes
beans and salad. Reservations for dinner must
be made at least one day in advance.
Salads include a variety of produce: Purple
cabbage, white cabbage, carrots, watercress,
6 DOWNTOWN BEAVERTON | Thursday, September 19, 2013
FOOD
DOWNTOWN BEAVERTON
Story and photographs by Scott Keith
At Gloria’s,
there isn’t a
large cooking
staff. Vargas
does it all.
Gloria’s Secret Café –a Beaverton treat
This Latin American gem can lay claim to being one of Beaverton’s best-kept secrets
Gloria Vargas offers Latin American cuisine at Gloria’s Secret Café.
“I decided to start selling
my salsa (15 different kinds)
at the Beaverton Farmers
Market — that’s how I got
into this kind of thing.”
—Gloria Vargas
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