Page 124 - WINE DINE AND TRAVEL MAGAZINE SUMMER 2023 LISBON EDITION

around of the goodies was so common in the buy new shoes every other month.” He also
tapas restaurants we visited, that waiters often added another bit of El Rinconcillo lore. Noting
assumed we’d be sharing and served everything that the hams only hung over the bar area,
in the middle of the table regardless of who or- though there were hooks everywhere on the an-
dered it. cient ceiling, he explained: “In the summer the
Of course, Spanish cuisine is known for other fat starts to drip and we don’t want it to drip on
dishes – for example, paella and gazpacho the dining customers.”
(dishes we did not neglect). But tapas seem to be At our ham-free table we toasted to Jody’s
the country’s soul food. The twisty, narrow, cob- birthday with glasses of Vermouth. A drink that,
ble-stoned streets of every old quarter we vis- unknown to me before our trip, is part of the
ited were lined with tapas tradition. Turns
tapas bars and restau- out, vermouth and tapas
rants. And from 1-4 in have been married since
the afternoon or from 9- the 18th century.
midnight we had trouble Introduced from Italy,
finding a place to sit in Spanish vermouth has
them. The combination little to do with the bit-
of tapas, drinks, and ter stuff used to spice up
conversation is buried Martinis or Manhattans.
deep in the Spanish It’s a white fortified
DNA. wine turned red by
On Jody’s birthday caramel and an encyclo-
night we went El Rincon- pedia of spices. In Spain,
cillo, Seville’s oldest bar: it’s slightly sweet and
founded in 1670. We’d drunk neat with ice.
already had dinner, so Many restaurants have
this was for late evening their own recipes that
drinks. But, of course, include cinnamon, car-
we could have ordered damom, and cloves. It’s
tapas, too. No fancy gas- like a mulled wine that’s
tronomic touches here. gone to graduate school.
Their tapas featured the It's become so ubiqui-
classics: hams, chorizos, tous at tapas bars and
sausages, cheeses, an- restaurants that the
chovies, cod, and Pisto con huevo, a kind of rata- Spanish expression “La hora de vermút,” basi-
touille with egg. The types of dishes they’ve cally means “happy hour.” By the end of our trip,
been serving for maybe centuries. I was ordering vermouth with nearly every meal.
With its walls of wine bottles, cured hams When in Spain. . .
hanging down overhead, and its massive, curved During the day, our group often split up into
mahogany bar, the El Rinconcillo looked like a three couples and explored the cities separately.
movie set and, in fact, has been used as a film But at night we’d always reconvene at a Ben-se-
backdrop several times. lected restaurant.
When I asked our waiter, Juan Carlos, if any of Ben’s favorite place, Casa Pepe. It was a high-
it had survived from the 17th century, he said, light restaurant for all of us. The variety of tapas
“The ceiling, the floor and the bar.” And he dishes stood out as did the waiter, a lanky young
added, pointing to the stone floor, “It pains my man with an austere manner. Austere, until we
feet, walking around on this every day. I have to asked him, “What do you recommend?” and he

124 WINE DINE & TRAVEL MAGAZINE SUMMER 2023