Beyond the Center: El Romero and El Nido del Buho

These two bars are among my favorites, and neither is in the center of the city. Both are on the northern part of town, and chances are, if you’re in Granada for just a few days, you won’t get to either of them. Your loss.

The first is El Romero, where you can get pitchers of beer and the tapas vary among paella, squid, octopus, sausage, and other extremely typical Spanish foods. There are a couple of great things about this bar: the cycling club that I sometimes ride with (the average age of the riders is probably somewhere in the 60s, even factoring in that I bring the average down by a few decades) has been going there after Sunday rides for years. I met up with some of the riders at a café in Ventas de Huelma last week, rode back to Granada with them, and we all went for some tapas at El Romero. Naturally, another part of the cycling group, that had gone on a different ride, was already there, and later, yet another member (who hasn’t been riding for a few months but who felt like getting tapas anyway) met the group there. In short: if what you want is to hang out with sixty-year-old men in spandex on a Sunday afternoon, show up at El Romero at about 1 in the afternoon. Also, if you happen to have gone on a nice bike ride and just feel like hanging out with fellow cyclists, just show up and chat them up. They’re friendly! And hilarious, particularly when the septagenarians get into arguments with the octogenarians about whose bicycle is the lightest/most high-tech.

This is one of the few places that I know of in Granada that serves pitchers (naturally, of Alhambra, the local beer.) Something about the atmosphere reminds me of Lanesplitters in Oakland, even though it’s not a pizza place and certainly not populated by twentysomethings in tapered overdyed jeans. The service is fantastic, in that they’re friendly, the tapas are generous, and they put up with large (overly enthusiastic groups) with a (grudging) smile.

It is in the neighborhood of La Chana, on the northwestern end of the city, off of the Carretera de Málaga, on Washington Irving street. Right across the street is a chicken roasting place called No Pía Mas that seems really popular, and with a really morbid name (“It doesn’t chirp any more.”) I have no idea what their hours are other than that they always seem to be open in the early afternoon on weekends. I don’t really hang out in La Chana except when I’m on my way back from a bike ride or running an errand there, so I can’t give you a feel for what the service or atmosphere is like on Saturday nights.

My favorite tapas bar for when I have more time than money, and am pretty hungry, is El Nido del Buho (The Owl’s Nest), on Plaza Santa Pantaleon a couple of blocks to the north of the Plaza de Toros (which isn’t a ridiculous walk from the center, and a nice stroll down the new landscaped pedestrian median in the middle of Constitución.) This place is always packed, and for good reason: the portions here are, to put it simply, the largest of which I’m aware in Granada. The service is shockingly fast, and you get a plate with olives and cornichons as soon as you order. You also get another, empty plate for your pits (a nice touch, no?) and, while they don’t automatically give you a fresh plate of olives with each round of tapas, if they notice that you keep eating them, or if you ask nicely, they cheerfully give you more.

The list of available tapas is extensive, and each person picks a tapa. Unlike most other places, where groups are limited to two varieties of tapas, a group of ten (should you manage to find enough space for such a large crowd) can pick ten different tapas. The tortilla de patata is huge, the lomo with alioli is filling, and the Filadelphia (their spelling) with walnuts includes more walnuts than you could buy for the same amount of money in the supermarket. It’s best to get here early, since it gets so crowded and seating is limited.

At lunchtime, one of the available tapas is paella, which I’ve never had (since I’ve never managed to get there in the middle of the day.) This is the kind of place where you pay for your drink as soon as it’s given to you, and where it’s crowded enough that the service can (if you’re waiting to order more) seem inattentive. On the ther hand, it’s amazing that they manage to get to everyone and that the tiny kitchen turns the tapas out before you can turn around.

Next time: Antiguas Bodegas Castañeda, Los Manueles