Category Archives: tapas tours

laura & erik

02 Saturday Jun 2018

Posted by in food & drink, friends, gastronomy, sevilla, sherry, spain, tapas, tapas bars, tapas tours, twitter friends

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I first met Laura @laurawburgess and Erik @thewhiskykiwi at Bodegas Urium in Jerez in September 2016, and would have met them a few months earlier in Sevilla, but I was hit with a random 24-hour bug and ended up giving them a “remote” tapas tour from bed via my iPhone.

Happily they were in town again yesterday and we were able to meet up for a fabulous lunch at Bodeguita Romero. They also joined me on last night’s Sevilla Tapas Tour with two other couples, and well, the chemistry couldn’t have been better. Right from the start everyone started talking and joking with each other. It was a great evening.

I will be seeing more of Laura & Eric at Vinoble, which starts tomorrow and is actually the reason they are here now. Can’t wait!

brand new wlt ott

23 Wednesday May 2018

Posted by in sevilla, tapas bars, tapas tours, we love tapas

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One of the great pleasures of running my “little sister” food tour company We Love Tapas is that I can create and develop different tapas tours. One of my favourites is the Oldest Taverns Tour. The first version of this tour included 4 bars that were all over 100 years old, but then sadly one of the bar owners passed away. The next version included 4 bars 75 – 165 years old, but it didn’t feel quite right. So this week I met with Team WLT and introduced a revamped OTT tour, which now includes visiting 5 bars, all of them over 100 years old, all family run, all fabulous. The first one is tomorrow with the amazing Delia and I’m really excited to see how it goes.  🙂

chance encounters

24 Tuesday Apr 2018

Posted by in friends, sevilla, tapas, tapas bars, tapas tours, twitter, wine

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Pepe, Cinta & José María

Love when stuff like this happens. After a lovely “tapas research” lunch with my friend and We Love Tapas colleague Cinta @LaCocheraAbuelo (in this case the company was much better than the food) we stopped by Bodeguita Romero because I wanted to talk to Alejandro about a couple of special bookings coming up. And we walked straight into a group of guys from Montilla-Moriles (fortified wine region in Córdoba), as well as my pal Pepe, owner of La Fresquita.

I was introduced to José María from Bodegas Toro Albalá @toroalbala and told him that I was supposed to go to the big Montilla-Moriles tasting event in Córdoba last week, and meet up with my friends Erik & Laura @MMWinesUK but the only day I could go was the same day they were going to visit Toro Albalá! So in the end I didn’t go, and as soon as I mentioned knowing Erik & Laura he insisted that Cinta and I try their lovely Dos Claveles (Two Carnations).

Meanwhile, Pepe and I were “talking shop” a bit about food tour guides, and also about his brother Manolo who owns the most fabulous Taberna Manolo Cateca – a fact that Cinta hadn’t known before, although she knows both bars well.

So it was like a coming together of various parts of my life here, all in one chance encounter at one of my favourite bars (the Romeros are my family). And I ended up with an invitation to visit Bodegas Toro Albalá anytime. When I explained to José María that I don’t have a car so would have to go to Córdoba by train (the bodega is about 50 kms away, in Agullar de la Frontera) he said just let him know when and he’d come and pick me up. Bonus!  🙂

we love markets

22 Thursday Feb 2018

Posted by in culture, gastronomy, markets, sevilla, tapas, tapas bars, tapas tours

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José, Delia, Cinta & Ana

About a year or so ago I started also offering my Market & Tapas Tour on We Love Tapas. Since then Cinta, and now José, have joined the WLT team and so yesterday we did a “walk through” training session so that they could also start doing this tour. There have been a couple of changes since I first started doing these, including a lovely collaboration with Ana, the owner of Lama La Uva, one of the most unique wine shops in Sevilla. Delia has been doing the market tours for awhile now, but it was great that she could stop by the shop for a glass of sherry with us. It’s a total pleasure – and honour – working with these guys.

gayle

17 Saturday Feb 2018

Posted by in friends, sevilla, spain, tapas, tapas bars, tapas tours, twitter, twitter friends

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After knowing each other “virtually” for years I was very excited to finally meet fellow tapas tour pioneer Gayle @GranadaTapasTours in person. She was in town visiting with family but took time out to meet up for a lunchtime tapeo. Like me, Gayle began her tapas tours in Granada back when food tours were still a novelty, so we have a lot in common in that sense and spent a fair bit of time “talking shop”. And of course we also have a lot of mutual acquaintances. But we also just chatted about this and that and I think I’ve met my match when it comes to someone who loves talking as much as I do. 🙂 Hoping to meet up again soon in Granada.