Get to Know Your Neighbors: Jamie Wallace of Alma Pan-Latin Kitchen

, owner of in Regent Square, recently sat down with us for a new feature in which we will "get to know" some local owners a little more personally! Check out what he had to say:

Where did you grow up?

My dad was in the military when I was growing up, so I lived in various army bases. I was born in Wheeling, WV and a couple months after that, we moved to Germany, so I lived there for the first couple years of my life. Then, we lived in Providence, RI, Fort Knox, Kentucky, Cocoa Beach, FL, and moved back to this area. My parents are both originally from Wheeling, so I went to high school in the northern panhandle, undergraduate at WVU and then law school at Pitt.

What’s your favorite thing about owning a business in Regent Square?

The community support. This really is like a small town—but in a good way. We sort of romanticize small towns but not every small town is great. This has all of the positive perks, so a lot of the folks who come in here are regulars. I see them at other businesses in the area walking on the street—it’s very nice to see that. They want to see local businesses thrive and succeed. It’s different than East Liberty (where he also owns Abay Ethiopian)—not to say that it’s not supportive there—it completely is—but where we are located here is just so much more residential. There is more residential housing coming in near Abay but it’s much more commercial. We have regulars there but they might not be folks who literally walk from their home to come in all the time. It’s a different perspective.

What’s your favorite band?

So, in general, it’s very difficult for me to answer favorites of anything. I would probably break things down into genres, but as a child of the ‘80s—and my first job ever that I got paid for was break dance instructor—I grew up on hip-hop and love hip-hop, so if I had to pick a band, it’d probably be The Roots.

What’s your favorite dish at Alma?

We always have a fish of the day and what I eat most often is the fish of the day. It’s always really good and it always varies and the preparation is amazing. That’s the thing I eat the most. If I were to wait on someone here I’d get information on what they’re into first, but what I eat the  most is the fish of the day.

What has been one of your most memorable vacations?

I am fortunate to have traveled a lot and I would say one of my favorites was my honeymoon. We spent it in Portugal and Spain and we had an outfitter who would take our bags from hotel to hotel and we would bike from one to the other. Also, we did some wine tours on bikes as well. When we travel we try to stay active and we did the same thing in South Africa and did bike tours there. It was our honeymoon and really great to be away and the hills of Portugal are just beautiful. Even though I knew my wife really well—having to navigate, having awful directions and being on bikes in a language we didn’t speak was a really good way for us to get to know each other better.

What are your free-time hobbies?

Traveling and running. I love going to new places and going out for a run to get a lay of the land.