Bistoro: A European getaway in Downtown Pueblo
Puebloans looking for an escape to the Mediterranean need to look no further than Bistoro, located at 109 Central Plaza.
Nestled in the heart of Downtown Pueblo, Bistoro is the dream of Joette Dhamo and her husband Pellumb. The award-winning restaurant provides a vast assortment of Spanish tapas, bocata sandwiches, desserts, sides, wine, drinks, and grocery items. Pellumb and Joette modeled Bistoro after the cuisine in several mediterranean countries.
“My husband is from Albania and my dad was from Spain so when we met, we kind of did a little tour around the Mediteranean and all the little old ladies that we met, they all had the same backyard garden,” Joette said. “All the same cucumber, tomato, onion, garlic. Everybody was doing their own little twist on simple ingredient recipes.”
Bistoro’s most popular entree is the Bisteak, winner of Best Main Entree at the 2018 Spice Up Pueblo competition. The Bisteak consists of marinated steak over greens with Pueblo Chile, sauteed onions, and aioli. Another popular entree is the Euskara, a pork sandwich with sauteed onions, sweet piquillo peppers, and aioli.
“It’s the original sandwich if you go to Pampalona, the running of the bulls, that’s the sandwich you are going to be eating at 2 a.m.,” Joette said about the Euskara.
Sides at Bistoro include award-winning Garlic Bisque soup, green salads, shoestring fries, vegan Fritas al Eta, Fritas al Pil, and pasta salads. For dessert, Bistoro offers a delicious selection of cakes along with Tullumba; a plate of three deep fried Balkan treats with caramel filling. Bistoro also has around 32 varieties of wine from around the world.
“Post-pandemic, we got this little grant from the city so we transformed our dining room into a really nice escape; into some kind of European dream or dream vacation so to speak,” Joette said. “Then we have the front as the tasting room. It’s got a deli where people can come up and taste a couple of wines before they buy a bottle to go.”
Customers can order food to be delivered curbside at getbistoro.com or through DoorDash.
Joette came to Pueblo from Rock Springs, Wyoming when she was in middle school. Her mother is from Pueblo and her father, a Basque, originally came to the United States as a sheep herder. Joette said cooking and sharing meals with large groups of people was something that was very important to her family growing up.
“Cooking for everybody was kind of something that I grew up on,” Joette said. “There was a big culture. In Wyoming, there were a lot of other Basques so it’s kind of more than just food, it’s the table at which everyone gathers, negotiates, makes memories, talks about the good memories of the past and what they want to do in the future. It’s intrinsic to the culture.”
Joette met Pellumb after she graduated from college in Pueblo and took a job in Rome. The two bonded over dreams of opening a restaurant.
“Both Albanians and Basques have that as the name of their culture; that table.” Joette said. “That was how we started talking and kept talking. We spent a whole night. I made him open a bottle of wine and we spent a whole night trying to find a plaza in Rome.”
As someone who enjoys traveling, Joette said she wishes people in Pueblo would “realize what a gem they live in.”
“It’s got the mountains, it's got beaches and a lake which is just lovely,” Joette said. “You are pretty much two hours away from everything the world has to offer. There's agro-tourism… Everything that all the other countries are trying to really focus on, Pueblo is right in the middle of.”
“Everybody here likes to use their hands, likes to be friendly, likes to get involved and that’s something you don’t get in larger cities,” Joette said. “Really only in Europe actually have I seen this level of community and people knowing each other and that hails itself in our dining room. Most of the people walking in know three or four other people in the room.”