Tag Archives: tapas bars

l’armanaque de sevilla 2025

27 Wednesday Nov 2024

Posted by in architecture, art, sevilla, tapas bars

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calendar 25

Before lockdown 2020 my neighbour Alfredo Rodríguez was working at Barra Baja, one of my favourite restaurants in the city. Then of course everything stopped. But not Alfredo. He started creating a series of Sevilla tapas bar façades that he would sketch while out on the few walks we were allowed and then finish at home. This led to a whole other line of business for him that eventually became his new full time job. I have two of his limited prints at home, of Casa Eme and Casa Morales. Then Alfonso had the idea to make an annual Sevilla almanac with a selection his ever expanding collection of façades on each page.

This is the 2025 L’Armanaque de Sevilla, hot off the presses, and once again I have also picked one up for Deb and Paul like I did last year.

the great pumpkin

13 Tuesday Aug 2024

Posted by in food & drink, sevilla, spain, tapas bars

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great pumpkin (1)

Here’s Peter with a pumpkin that weighs more than he does. We stopped in for a snack at Doña Emilia yesterday, which is the riverside restaurant/tapas bar of the Manolo Mayo family. This 100 kilo specimen was apparently their runner-up in the largest veg-fruit competition held annually in Los Palacios (where the Mayo family is from and where they have their original restaurant and their own vegetable garden). So the even bigger pumpkin and giant watermelons (also winners) stayed in Los Palacios.

great pumpkin (2)

filming session

13 Thursday Jun 2024

Posted by in food & drink, friends, gastronomy, sevilla, tapas, tapas bars, television

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filming

I was asked a while ago to help a television production company with an upcoming travel and gastronomy feature in Sevilla and I was happy to do so even though they later mentioned that they also wanted me to be in the programme too (!!!). And well… eep. I had set them up with the perfect bar and chefs for filming the cooking sessions, but later they also wanted to film a “tapeo”. Again, I organised this with two of my favourite bars and got their permission and when Jaime, one of the chefs, said he’d also be going along on the tapeo I thought “great! I’m off the hook!”. Except no. They still wanted me to come along and join the small group going out.

And well, it was fun and I was happy to help my friends get some nice exposure but I seriously hope any shots with me in it end up on the cutting room floor. Also, I didn’t make it to our final bar because everything was running late, my knee was killing me, and I had a lunchtime tapas tour in Triana the next day. So I bailed and hoped they would get some good stuff at the last place. Will let you know when it comes out, sometime early 2025 is the plan. Until then I can’t say much more about it.

friday night fun

17 Friday May 2024

Posted by in sevilla, tapas, tapas bars

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friday fun

I was just mentioning how I am almost never go out at night anymore and, when I do, it’s usually for a tapas tour. But today ran away with me and by the evening I was feeling restless and suddenly HAD to go out. But where? Then I remembered I’d had an instagram message from a local craft beer company who asked if I would please try their azahar-infused pale ale and, as I knew they had it at Casa Moreno, I thought why the heck not. Also I LOVE this bar so much. You may remember Emilio who is locally famous for his charming hand-written bills (he also made a special one for my 30th Sevilla anniversary). So we tried the beer (actually quite nice) had a couple of tapitas and, when we were back in the street Peter suggested stopping in at Bodeguita Romero around the corner.

My first response was that we’d never get in but when we arrived two people sitting at the bar in my favourite spot (in front of the open doors) suddenly paid up and left. Done! Then this happened. I was on my way to the loo and passed three ladies (all about my age I think) at the far end of the bar who I realised had also just been at Casa Moreno. And they recognised me too! So we got to chatting and they were a bit surprised at my local knowledge of tapas bars so I had to fess up about being Queen of Tapas and even gave them my card so they could have a look at my website. It was fun. Then of course they made mention of my ACCENT (what? after 30 years you sound like this? etc etc) but lately I’ve decided to stop feeling embarrassed when people make fun of my accent and so I informed them that it is actually quite cute, in fact it’s ADORABLE (which made them laugh). Honestly from now on I am OWNING my fucking accent. So there.

Anyhow… on their way out they passed by and said “guess where we’re going now!”. I said Casa Morales because these are the three best trad bars in the ‘hood, but no. So they said “ok, here’s a hint, we’re going for tortillitas de camarones” and I said BARBIANA! Well. They almost fell over. So not only do I have an adorable accent but I also KNOW ALL THE BARS. Anyhow, it was so fun, going to both bars, having a snack and a drink at each, just getting out. Honestly I need to do this more often.

 

on service

13 Tuesday Feb 2024

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service

So you know me, always on the lookout for some new tapas bar or restaurant to visit. And by “new” it could either be recently opened or just new to me. And so today I found myself checking out a new place that had actually opened in December (so no excuses). Excuses for what? Read on…

We walked in and saw a cluster of men seated at the bar and, behind the bar itself, three waiters huddled together. We were the first to arrive. Did anyone greet us? Did they fuck. Finally I waived at the waiters and said “okay if I take photos?” and after receiving permission I took a few interior shots. And then… nothing. Nobody asked us if we wanted to see the menu or sit at a table. Once again I waived at the waiters and said “okay if we sit here?” and got the go ahead.

Meanwhile the owner(s) – I recognised one of them from an article – kept on drinking and yakking with their friends. Not one of them even glanced at us. I mean… call me crazy but if I owned a tapas bar and saw two people walk in when nobody else was there, I would greet them and call over a waiter to make sure they were being taken care of. You know, make them feel welcome. This did not happen.

Instead, after finding a table for ourselves a very reserved waiter came over and took our drinks order. When I asked about a couple of items on the menu they didn’t seem to know anything about them, and our wine was poured without any kind of engagement. I commented to Peter that this person looked very uncomfortable, aside from not knowing much about the food. So then I got chatty. Asked a bit about the bar, etc and then our waiter confessed it was their first day. OMG.

I saw no support happening, the other two waiters were pretty much ignoring the newbie, as were THE OWNERS… I mean srsly wtf. In the end we ordered about 4 okay but nothing special tapas, left a big tip, and vowed not to go back. I honestly hope this waiter gets a new job soon at a place that actually cares about their staff, trains them properly, helps them to do the best job possible.