Wine country residents have a unique opportunity to broaden their culinary horizons with the recent  introduction of a new Latin American culinary style in downtown Napa.

Pica Pica, a boutique cafe within Napa’s Oxbow Public Market, is serving up tasty, decidedly different Venezuelan street food that is sure to find favor with young and seasoned palates alike.

Offering a modest range of simple — and, for the most part, savory — fare, Pica Pica is tempting diners with creative dishes bearing names like “arepas,” “cachapas,” “pasapalos” and a “chupe” so nutritious a Jewish grandmother would approve.

Partners Adriana Lopez Vermut and Luis H. Sosa have been busy explaining to Napans how their fellow countrymen — along with their South American neighbors — incorporate corn into all aspects of the diet.

There’s the very popular arepas, a grilled cornflour flatbread, crispy on the outside, that’s filled with a variety of stuffings, both warm and cold.

“It’s like a bagel or pita bread (in other cultures),” says Vermut, “and it can be filled with just about anything.

“In the ’70s, some used to fill them with caviar,” interjects her father, Leopoldo Lopez, a Caracas financier-turned restaurateur who serves as inspiration for his daughter’s new venture and menu. “It’s our bread — arepas are used to contain everything from ham and eggs to beans and cheese, from turkey to ham. Arepas are the cornerstone of Venezuelan street food because they’re simple to make, even easier to eat.”

And at Pica Pica — which, by the way, means a little bit of this, a little bit of that — you can have your round, stuffed arepas any number of ways:

There’s the Pepeada — that’s chicken salad with “guasacaca,” or creamy avocado. Or maybe you’d prefer the Pelu’a, shredded skirt steak with cheddar cheese.

Touted as the national dish, Pabellón also contains shredded skirt steak, but also incorporates fried plantains and black bean paste.

Llanera features sautéed sirloin strips with green peppers and onions, with guasacaca on the side. And for simpler tastes, the Clasica offers a choice of cheese with smoked ham, the Queso as indicated, arepas with only cheese.

For those who’d prefer to have their arepas without meat or cheese, the choice is Pabellon Vegetariano, featuring seasoned tofu, fried plantains, black bean paste and sliced avocado. You’d not find this option on the streets of Caracas, however, advises Vermut.

For late breakfast and brunch addicts, try the Benedictine (poached egg, smoked ham, avocado and spiced sour cream) or the Perico (scrambled eggs with sofrito, plus bacon bits, chorizo or cheese).

In her father’s footsteps

Leopoldo Lopez has had a passion for food all his life. Yet for the better part of his career, he dealt with the financial side of the Venezuelan educational system, working in the government center in Caracas. Little more than a decade ago, he retired from education in order to open a restaurant in Caracas. Specializing in time-honored but laborious, traditional dishes of his native country, the restaurant was an immediate hit with Caraqueños.

Lopez and his wife raised children who also enjoyed sitting down to a good meal prepared in the family kitchen. Son and namesake Leopoldo chose to enter politics and at present is one of five major opposition leaders in significant government posts — president of the Caracas borough that houses most of the city’s businesses.

Daughter Adriana moved to the United States 12 years ago and resides in San Francisco. She enjoyed growing up in a family interested in cuisine.

Although her father has consistently prodded her to open a restaurant, Adriana remembered all the time and effort he’d put into his business. Reflecting on that she vowed never to open a full-service eatery herself.

That’s how she hit upon the concept of Pica Pica, a kitchen preparing Venezuela’s popular street food, where the customer pays for and picks up his or her order and then adjourns to nearby common dining space to enjoy it.

Living in San Francisco, she saw how that concept worked at the Ferry Building Marketplace. A friend (Napa’s Sally Gordon, who has operated Gordon’s Cafe in Yountville for a number of years) introduced her to Steve Carlin, who developed the Ferry Building Marketplace and was in the process of putting together a similar project in Napa at the Oxbow.

Vermut explained her idea for Pica Pica, flew in her father’s chef from Caracas and set up a tasting of Venezuelan street food for Carlin and others. She said everyone was impressed and the idea to open Pica Pica came to fruition here.

“It made sense to me to try it in a good environment like the Oxbow Public Market,” she noted. “This is a community that embraces new food.

“This is an easy food to eat, easy to understand once you’ve had it. And it’s not pretentious. It feels like home cooking. I think of it as Venezuelan comfort food.”

Armed with family recipes, she and partner Luis Sosa recruited staff from the area and trained them how to prepare these unique dishes.

On the menu

In addition to arepas (which range in price from $5 to $8.95), Pica Pica serves another tasty item called cachapas ($7-$8.95), a corn pancake made from whole corn kernels, golden corn flour, water, a little salt and sugar. Once  it’s griddled, the pancake is then topped with cheese, a mixture of ham and cheese, or one’s choice of chicken salad, shredded skirt steak or sirloin strips, and then folded over to make a delectable pancake-style sandwich.

Popular with young and old alike is Pica Pica’s Maize’wich ($5-$6), grilled cheese or grilled ham and cheese on sweet cornbread.

Then there’s a choice of pasapalos ($3.25), a couple of terrific Venezuelan side orders — yummy yucca fries or tempting tostones, fried plantain rounds.

The team at Pica Pica has also developed several salsas to appeal to local palates as well as to those familiar with the cuisine of Mexico. Try Morena (black bean mayonnaise) with the yucca fries, or even Pica’Chup, their own spiced ketchup. The eatery’s signature hot sauce is called  Pica’Pun, while the tasty Mela’o is a blend of tamarind juice and cane sugar (called papelon in Venezuela or piloncillo in Mexico).

Don’t pass on a cup of chupe ($5.50), a hearty soup of Andean origin that incorporates chicken, corn, potatoes, leeks and white cheese. Also due to make its debut on the chupe menu is the senior Lopez’s oxtail stew, a criollo recipe that brings together oxtails, carrots, leeks, garlic, onions, capers, olives and a dash of papelon.

Salad options include Sifrina (hearts of palm, carrot, celery and daikon radish) and Bululú (corn, red bell pepper, jicama and pineapple), a word that literally translates to “noisy gathering.”

Also based on maize, or corn, are Pica Pica’s desserts, called natillas. They’re creamy custards and will be offered in several flavors.

Among the unusual beverage offerings are Peruvian chicha, a sweetened purple corn cider, and cocada de limon , coconut lemonade.

And any day now, Pica Pica will be serving granita sangria.

Hours of operation are 10 a.m. to 7 p.m. Monday through Thursday, until 8 p.m. Friday and Saturday and until 5 p.m. on Sunday.

Vermut is quick to point out that the ingredients for many of Pica Pica’s dishes come from fellow vendors at Oxbow Public Market, like the oxtails, beef and ham from Five Dot Ranch.

She feels if locals take Venezuelan street food to heart, there’ll be more Pica Picas in her future.

But for now, the eager young entrepreneur is excited by the prospect of presiding over a “bululú” at Oxbow Public Market on any given day.