Stephen Montoya
One of the city’s oldest open-air markets located at 960 N University Drive on the North Side of Cowtown will soon be home to a new agave themed distillery and brand called La Pulga (The Flea). This new tequila brand is founded by Sarah Castillo, a well-known restauranteur (Taco Heads, Tinies Mexican Cuisine, Sidesaddle Saloon); Andrew De La Torre, a club owner and the operator of Pequeño Mexico; and Stephen Slaughter, a local entrepreneur, and real estate developer. Along with the company’s head of spirits, Ale Ochoa, and a few other investors, La Pulga is already making its mark in a few North Texas liquor stores and bars. But this is just the first phase in a two-part plan.
The second part of this process will be to take the 12 acres the open-air market resides on and expand it into an agave themed distillery, all while still keeping the ambiance of the open-air market intact. But although this new brand was born in Cowtown it is distilled and bottled in Jalisco, Mexico, where several famous brands of tequila have already made their mark. But if making a traditional mark is the concept then the space where this new distillery will reside is in the right spot, according to De La Torre.
La Pulga
“The name La Pulga is really a term of endearment for an open-air Mexican flea market,” De La Torre says while surveying the current flea market grounds. “I managed this market property for ten years or so and when Covid hit, it fell on hard times and it was about to be torn down.” De La Torre says he didn’t want to see this property taken over and destroyed since it was such an indelible part of the North Fort Worth cultural fabric.
“When you come here on the weekends, you see a lot of families hanging out, people bartering over clothes, tools, electronics, and you can hear regional Mexican music and taste authentic Mexican food,” he says. “It’s a community, so when I heard it might get torn down, I immediately asked myself who I knew that could dream big and find a way to keep this place going.”
Enter Castillo, who said her end game was to create a new tequila and open an agave themed distillery if and when the opportunity presented itself. “I had just gotten back from Patron and wanted to focus on doing something around the tequila industry when [De La Torre] asked me about my thoughts,” Castillo says. With the idea to do a local tequila intact, Castillo says she was contacted by Slaughter, who was already in the process of trying to create and make his own tequila.
“When he called me, he got straight to the point asking me if I had my own tequila yet,” Castillo verified. “I thought his timing was perfect, and since Stephen is real estate savvy, we all ended up meeting to brainstorm.”
According to Slaughter, the acquisition of the 12 acres where the open-air market resides was up for grabs as an off-market sale. “The owner at that time didn’t want to list the property because he didn’t want to run off the vendors,” Slaughter says. “We just thought it would be cool to try out our idea at this iconic historic site here in Fort Worth that we’ve all driven past forever,” Slaughter says. But the acquisition was anything but smooth since there were already two other national developers in the pipeline, he says. “We decided to go hard with the earnest money day one and told the sellers what our vision was,” Slaughter says. “We got on the plane the next week and pounded the pavement in Jalisco, Mexico to get ideas for this site and also searched for the right partner to help us with the tequila.”
Per the tequila itself, La Pulga offers a blanco and reposado, all made from 100% Weber Blue Agave and crafted with traditional methods in the Highlands of Jalisco. The brand launched with La Pulga Tequila Blanco, an unaged silver tequila (80 proof) characterized by its floral aroma and taste notes of cooked agave, grapefruit, anise, and honey; and La Pulga Tequila Reposado (80 proof) that is aged for 7 months in ex-bourbon barrels to impart flavors of agave, burnt sugar, licorice, honey, and black pepper. Both went through a verification process to be designated “Confirmed Additive-Free” by the influential industry experts at Tequila Matchmaker, ensuring that no ingredients were added to the tequila to alter or enhance its taste, smell, or color.
This is where Ochoa says her expertise was needed. A former whiskey scientist at TX Whiskey, Ochoa says she knows what to do when it comes to creating a unique spirit.
“I met Sarah at a panel discussion in Las Vegas (Nevada) when she began dropping hints that she might be getting into the tequila industry,” Ochoa says. “I told her that I would always be happy to taste some product for her.” It just so happened that Ochoa had already distilled a small batch of Sotol just for the experience. “[Sarah] tasted a small batch of Sotol I made, and I guess it wasn’t bad because I am here today (laughs).”
Yet, it wouldn’t be until this group of investors went to Mexico that they really experienced the art form that cultivating and making tequila from scratch requires.
Stephen Montoya
For Ochoa, being able to create and learn hands-on how to make authentic tequila in Mexico with the help of experts was a cultural awakening. “For me, this was my way of connecting with a part of my culture I had never experienced before. That’s what made this experience so important, it wasn’t just the tequila, it was the process.”
For now, the North Texas agave themed distillery aspect of La Pulga is still a work in progress, but tequila fans can get their first taste of this spirit through Republic National Distributing Company (RNDC) at bars and restaurants throughout the Dallas/Ft. Worth metroplex and other select Texas markets, and at fine spirits retailers. It’s also available for purchase online via the La Pulga website. The bottle labels feature “alebrijes” – Mexican folk art images that depict “El Bronco” on La Pulga Blanco, and “El Toro” on the Reposado.
For those of you who enjoy the open-air market on the weekends, the new owners have no plans to shut it down. De La Torre says the market is still an important part of the community, and he and his partners have no desire to close it. In fact, the distillery plans will utilize parts of the market to keep everything as authentic as possible.
“This is not a flash-in-the-pan thing for us,” De La Torre says. “We want to be in the trenches. We’re doing this for the love of the spirit and for the culture that the industry brings and represents. It’s an honor to put that spirit of community in that bottle.”