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Ashland gets a touch of Spain Ostras! co-owner and Chef De Cuisine Billy Harto preps food in the kitchen. [Daily Tidings / Denise Baratta] Tuesday Apr 25, 2017 at 2:00 AM By MJ Daspit For the Tidings With its grand opening last week, Ostras! becomes the latest wine and food venue to appear downtown. For this venture, Billy Harto, who also owns Thai Pepper and Kobe, partnered with long-time co-worker Oliver Fix to create a Spanish-themed tapas bistro and bottle shop, offering what Fix calls “an intimate, casual, friendly, and inviting” dining experience. For several years Harto had wanted to fill a void in Ashland’s restaurant scene with respect to Spanish food and wine. When the premises on the Plaza at 47 North Main St. became available, Fix recalls, “Billy approached me to say, hey, do you want to open this together. When a restauranteur like Billy Harto asks you if you want to open a restaurant you just say 'yes.”' For the name of their eatery the co-owners decided on the Spanish word for oysters, “ostras,” which Spaniards also use as an expression meaning “Wow!” Hence the exclamation point. Ostras! features a cocktail bar with wines by the glass. The wine list emphasizes what Fix calls “fun and up-and-coming Spanish varietals.” One of the fun ones is Txakoli (pronounced “cha-kuh-lee”). Made from the Hondarrabi Zuri grape of Spain’s Basque region, it’s bottled with just a little bit of CO2 still trapped in the wine. “There’s a special pour spout for that and in the Basque country they delight in pouring it while pulling the bottle up away from the glass so you have an arc of wine. It’s a very refreshing, dry white, and it has that added little bit of spritz. Also there are other varietals from Spain that people are not as familiar with. I have a Godello, another clean, dry white. There’s Mencia a medium-bodied red, and some fruit forward Tempranillos that finish nice and dry such as the Tinto Fino.” Ostras! is also a bottle shop with retail-priced wines available to purchase and take away or consume in the restaurant with no corkage fee. The bottle selection includes international wines and showcases the best of Southern Oregon, including “some amazing Pinot Noirs, Tempranillos and others varietals for which our region has been steadily garnering more of a national reputation,” Fix explains. “We want visitors to Ashland to walk away with some of that celebrated Southern Oregon wine. For locals we want to offer fun varietals from around the world that they may not have tried before.” Above all, the wines at Ostras! are selected to compliment a unique tapas menu. As Chef de Cuisine, Billy Harto has assembled an eclectic line-up of small plate delicacies, distinctively sauced and sized either for the individual or in a larger portion to share. Not to be missed are the braised pork cheeks in salsa verde, the meat balls in tomato sauce with manchego, and the pimentón chicken thighs with olives, bay leaves and garlic. A board of fresh bread is a must to get every drop of sauce. Looking forward, stay tuned for special events like paella nights and wine tastings with the region’s top winemakers, gatherings that will have locals and visitors alike saying “Ostras!” with the exclamation point, meaning “Wow!” For hours, menu and other information, see ostrasashland.com. — Ashland freelance writer MJ Daspit is co-author of "Rogue Valley Wine."