BARCELONA, Spain — Tapas didn’t start in Barcelona, a guide told me. It came from southern Spain, but it’s everywhere in this beautiful city on the Mediterranean known for its Gothic architecture and rambunctious nightlife. A contact in Barcelona highly recommended Cal Pep, a bustling restaurant in the trendy El Born barrio.
“You’ll never get a table,” he said, “but that’s okay because you want to be at the bar anyway. It’s where the action is.”
He was right on all counts.
On a cool Friday night, the lineups were out the door by 8 p.m. The second-floor restaurant was fully booked and the scene at the bar, which resembles an old-fashioned American diner, was one of non-stop movement. Plates, drinks and people kept coming and going. It’s the kind of atmosphere you’d expect from a place that draws tourists because of guidebook recommendations and brings back locals because its food lives up to its reputation.
I joined Anil and Jayde, a couple who I bumped into at Hotel 1898 in La Rambla, for a few courses that included tuna tartare, Catalonian omelette, calamari and the highlight for me, a delicious serving of steamed mussels and clams (pictured above).
In El Born, Cal Pep isn’t the only great tapas spot, I discovered. Lonja de Tapas was a winner with a crackling skillet of shrimp with mushrooms in a garlic sauce (pictured below). The playful spicy potato and meat balls, which came with a tomato sauce, were also excellent, but the scallops were disappointingly bland.
Even if tapas wasn’t invented in northern Spain, it’s clearly the meal of choice in Barcelona.
And in case you were wondering, tapas became popular centuries ago in southern Spain in part because the King of Castille had a liking for snacks and in part because there was less chance of flies interrupting your meal if it was a small portion. The term “tapas” means to cover, which is what cooks and diners did with their plates to keep pests from invading. Now you know.
Tags: adrian brijbassi, Barcelona, cal pep, el born barrio, lonja de tapas, restaurants, spain dining, tapas
