When I graduated from law school back in 1998, I took a three week trip to Europe -- well the U.K., Spain and Ireland to be exact. I spent one week in Barcelona and absolutely fell in love with the city. I have not been back since 1998 and have heard from people that have gone more recently that it is not as nice as I remember. Well, I am not sure that I agree and I am looking forward to returning someday to revisit the city that I loved so much.
Barcelona opened a few months after we moved to Stamford. My wife and I had dinner at Barcelona on our second wedding anniversary. Conincidentially, my second wedding anniversary was the second night of classes towards my MBA -- my wedding anniversary was the first night of my Managerial Marketing Class. I remember that my professor was surprised that any place would be open at 9:00 pm for dinner. After having lived in Stamford for a few months I understood what he was talking about.
Okay, one more paragraph of background and then I will get on to the review. When we lived in New York, we lived very close to two tapas restaurants. The first was Sala 19 and the second was Boqueria. Sala was good, but Boqueria was AWESOME. So, Boqueria has become our "gold standard" for tapas restaurants.
Okay, now onto the review. We started dinner with the olive plate. As children, my wife and I both hated olives. In our later years, we have come to really like them. Not sure what it is about olives, but now we are huge fans. The portion at Barcelona is huge and the olives were really tasty. Next we had the Gambas al Ajillo. In English, it is shirmp cooked with olive oil and garlic. My wife and I have made these at home before as well as had them at Boqueria. The gambas are good, however, they could stand to have a little more garlic.
Next, we had hanger steak with truffle oil. The hanger steak was great. It was grilled perfectly. The truffle oil truly enhanced the taste of the meat. In addition, we had a meat and cheese plate as well. Spanish dried meats and cheeses are generally excellent. Barcelona's selection consists of the best of both. I still have dreams about the fuet. YUM!
Finally, being a Spanish restaurant, Barcelona has an excellent wine list. While most of the list is Spanish wine, Barcelona also has a fair bit of South American wines as well. My wife and I never venture out of Spain when make our wine selection. This night, we had a 2005 Priorat. It paired extremely well with the hanger steak and the meat and cheese plate.
Word to the budget conscious -- on Sundays, Barcelona offers 50% of selected bottles of wine. If you are unfamiliar with Spanish wines, the Sunday deal is a great way to sample some Spanish wines for relatively inexpensive prices. Personally, I think that Spanish wines are one of the hidden gems of the European wine world. Barcelona does an excellent job of uncovering many of those gems and presenting them on its wine list. I hope that you will agree.
Finally, for your viewing pleasure, I leave you with a clip from Pedro Almodovar's All About My Mother. In All About My Mother, the main character leaves Madrid after her son dies and returns to Barcelona, where she left after her son was born. (Don't worry, I didn't spoil the movie for you -- all this happens in the first 15 minutes of the film). Almodovar's movie shows off the beauty of Barcelona. An added attraction is that the theater shown in the film was across the street from the hotel where I stayed when I went to Barcelona in 1998. Enjoy.
Barcelona Restaurant & Winebar
222 Summer Street
Stamford, CT 06901-2303
(203) 348-4800
www.barcelonawinebar.com
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