Tag Archives: tapas

reyes

03 Thursday Dec 2020

Posted by in food & drink, friends, sevilla, sherry, tapas, tapas bars, wine

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reyes

So ever since Reyes Morales joined me at Casa Román to help me celebrate my 27th Sevilla Anniversary I’ve been promising to bring her a bottle of a nice mencía rosado to try. We both have a preference for crisp white wines and rosés over reds and I discovered this rosado while looking for more economical ways to still enjoy wine while being completely broke. Anyhow, yesterday was finally the day! I showed up at Casa Morales with my chilled bottle of wine and we sat at the table Reyes had reserved for us, in front of an open window (so lots of ventilation) and she proceeded to order food for us. Well, between the two of us and Reyes’ husband Juan Carlos (who stopped by for a quick glass) the bottle didn’t last that long, so then we were on to the sherries.

I’ve known Reyes for a long time, but it’s only been in the past year or so that we’ve started connecting on a more personal level. She is truly a warm and wonderful person and we always have a great time when we get together. Well this time rosé led to sherry, which led to more sherry and eventually a penúltima down the street at Bodeguita Romero. I’m telling you, that chica is a bad influence.  😉

sherry & tapas at t

07 Wednesday Oct 2020

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sherry at t

So this is exciting! This past weekend I got together with brothers Ricardo & Javi, who run the fabulous Restaurante ConTenedor in Sevilla, to try a new venue for my Sherry & Tapas Tastings. You may recall they also opened a very unique space just over a year ago, simply called T, and this is where we held the event. There were six lovely people from the UK attending, all friends travelling together, who had initially asked me for a tapas tour. But as this is just not possible at the moment I suggested a sherry tasting and they went for it. And they were so lovely! I can’t tell you how good it felt to get “back in the saddle” again, after not having worked in almost 7 months. Well, if you can call it work. For me it’s always so much fun doing this (same with my tapas tours) that I can’t believe how lucky I am to have work I love so much.

Anyhow, this group was amazing, so inquisitive and open to anything, and the tasting went so well that I was keen on working out a way we could do more. Like me, Ricardo & Javi have been feeling the loss of tourism in the city, especially as a lot of their regular clientele tend to be visitors. So we have come up with this new offer and I couldn’t be more delighted. Luckily International Sherry Week is just around the corner and this gives us another platform to let the world know about us.

And so we now have Sherry & Tapas at T, which really is a unique sherry tasting experience. I first met Ricardo many years ago at ConTenedor, and later Javi when T first opened. But somehow if feels like we were meant for each other, kindred spirits. So wish us luck! 🙂

sherry t (2)

lola por dios

02 Friday Oct 2020

Posted by in 2020, friends, sevilla, tapas

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I am amazed at the number of new tapas bars and restaurants that have opened in Sevilla since we began our lockdown “de-escalation” at the end of June. This is optimism in the extreme, and of course I support it, but there is also a bit of trepidation there, hoping they will succeed in spite of the odds. I know that in some cases the restaurants had already invested in opening in the spring, so it’s now either make or break time. Others, like these crazy guys, looked for new ways to expand on what they already had going here, and make it even more fun and interesting.

I give you (L-R) Jota, Juan, Miguel and Esteban standing in front of their newly opened Lola Por Dios. I took this photo the day before the opening and, as usual in these cases, it looked like they would never be finished in time. But of course they were, and were immediately supported by friends and other happy locals looking for a nice place to enjoy amazing wines and Esteban’s singular sherry-based vermouths, along with delicious traditional tapas. Lola por Dios has been going for years, but this past year or so has also been going through some changes. It was a bold move to change locations and to also create this quirky “taberna vertical” with the bar distributed over four floors, with a small terrace outside on the pedestrian street.

Good luck my darlings! xx

my 27th sevilla anniversary

16 Wednesday Sep 2020

Posted by in casa azahar, friends, sevilla, tapas, tapas bars

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Twenty-seven years ago today I drove down from Salamanca with a friend and with all my worldly belongings in the back of his car, along with some precious cargo – my two cats Lua and her son Sunny. We arrived in Sevilla at 8 pm, as previously arranged (to meet landlord and pick up keys), and miraculously found parking almost in front of my new home in calle Mateos Gago. But there was no landlord. And as this was 1993 there were no cell phones, so we just waited. And waited. Finally we asked the bar we were parked in front of if we could get something to eat and drink, but we didn’t really want to leave the car because of the cats and all. And bless them, the people at Bar Campanario actually brought food and drink out to our car, like we were at a drive in, and it was lovely. The landlord finally showed up at 11pm full of apologies, but we were fine (though the cats were happy to see a litter box!). Bar Campanario ended up becoming my local, heck even my living room (my studio apt across the street was tiny), and the owners became fast friends.

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