family-run bars

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brothers and previous owners Antonio & Lupe

With over 3,000 tapas bars in Sevilla, and more than 300 listed and rated on my Sevilla Tapas website, you can imagine that keeping up with new openings and revisiting bars to update their reviews is a very time consuming (and expensive!) endeavour. Sometimes even years can pass between visits, as was the case when I stopped in at Bar Bistec the other day and I noticed that the last time I’d been there was in 2012.

At first I noticed that the place had been spruced up a bit, and that they had much younger staff than before. I recalled meeting the two brothers who owned the place on my previous visit but didn’t see them around, so I got talking to one of the young barmen and showed him my website on my phone, and as he was scrolling through the photos he said – “that’s my dad and my uncle!”.

Turns out that since my last visit there had been a “changing of the guard” and now the two sons of the two brothers are now running the show. So I got the boys to pose in the same place their fathers had posed five years previously, as you can see. They got such a kick out of it, and so did I. All part of loving my job. 

cousins and co-owners José Antonio & Lupe

lonely planet

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the Lonely Planet team with Reyes Morales and Delia at Casa Morales

So THIS happened last July but we were sworn to secrecy until the big news came out… which is that Sevilla has been chosen by Lonely Planet as the top city destination to visit in 2018. And I am thrilled that my Cycle & Tapas Tour (a great collaboration between We Love Tapas & Elecmove) is featured in the Lonely Planet video. Have a look here… Lonely Planet Best Travel 2018

Here are a few scenes from our day out filming. It was a long hot day, but also so much fun. Many thanks to Lonely Planet and also to our fabulous Delia for being the “face and voice” for our project – she did an amazing job.
filming at the Plaza de España

classic Plaza de España fountain shot

Delia with LP team having tapas & sherry at Las Teresas

Delia (centre), Sofia (right) and the  Lonely Planet team

jeremy, karen & joe

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The last time I saw Jeremy @jeremyhead, Karen & Joe was almost exactly two years ago, when we met up for tapas and ended up on an impromptu Triana Tapas Tour. This time we managed to meet near the end of their week-long visit in Sevilla and had a lovely lunch at the recently renovated La Azotea Zaragoza. Good times.

phoebe

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Ramón & Phoebe at La Abacería Antigua de San Lorenzo

Phoebe @plemess is yet another friend I met through Twitter, but indirectly, through – yep – another Twitter friend (and now her husband) Oli @CoteDuPy. We met in person in London (August 2015) when Phoebe very generously offered to host a rooftop dinner for me in her home. So when I heard she would be visiting Sevilla I was happy to play host one afternoon and introduce her to some of my favourite tapas bars (and tapas). Phoebe is also a sherry addict like me, so I made sure we went to places that have a nice range of sherries, but I hadn’t expected to find this year’s latest bottling (autumn 2017) of Solear manzanilla pasada by Bodegas Barbadillo at La Antigua Abacería de San Lorenzo. What an extra special treat that was.

fabulous sherry and tapas at Eslava

We finished up with a penúltima at La Tienda de Azotea, by which time Phoebe’s friend had arrived in town, so she went off to meet him and I made my way home. All in all, a lovely way to spend a Sunday afternoon.

Solear Autumn Saca 2017 at La Abacería Antigua de San Lorenzo