1282. Fri 10/6/22: Bar San Mateo II, Jerez de la Frontera

Beer: Galicia Estrella 5.0%

“I like these crappy old bars, don’t you?” Stephanie inquires. I concur. The main square bars in Plaza del Arenal are bright and full and friendly and touting for business (which puts us off). This place, just off the square, is reasonably dark and dingy and has three tables outside – all occupied by little groups of old boys. We go inside – there’s (what appears to be) a fierce Matriarch behind the bar; she seems to be telling off an old boy regular but is charming when she addresses us. Would I prefer a large beer? Yes please. Gracias.

An old friend of the old boy who was being told off lets us know that there’s a table free outside now. Gracias. We file out.

It’s dark out now, it’s gone 10pm, and mercifully cool. Kids are still outside – four of the little blighters, enthusiastically kicking around a shabby leather football. Two of the kids are wearing Paris St Germain shirts… which seems incongruous. Still, better that than Real Madrid or Man Utd isn’t it? I’m not sure. PSG seem horribly noveau riche.

One of the PSG kids starts showing off his juggling skills. He’s got some skills. On the pitch, I suggest to Steph, he’s probably shit. 

The ambience is lovely and laidback, while the bar is getting increasingly busy. Perhaps it’s folks coming out now the heat of the day has eased – and maybe they’re coming to this bar ‘cause its not selling Cruzcampo. We leave sometime after 11pm.

993. Thu 27/2/20: Vitak, A Coruña

Beer: Estrella Galicia 4.7%

Our ill-fated seafood search has led us back to Vitak. Our trouble is that we very rarely do restaurants, and we haven’t stumbled on any decent seafood tapas bars – other than here. It’s no trouble, not really, this place is fine. I like a Spanish fishy tapas bar: they’re invariably bright and bustling, and often resemble a canteen rather than a bar.

We found earlier that, though fish dishes are readily available, they’re not served up as free tapas. Now we know, that’s fine. We order some little fried fishes. They’re excellent. They’re always excellent…

Notes bemoan that this is our last night, we’re going on to Santiago de Compostela in the morning, so won’t have another chance to dip into Vitak’s menu. Maybe we should have ordered a couple more tapas this time round. Rick Stein would’ve.

But he’s got a bigger budget.

1506. Sat 25/3/23: Lugano Café Bar, Zaragoza

Beer: Estrella Galicia 5.5%

Bar nearer our digs for the last bar of the night on our first night in Zaragoza.

The draught Estrella Galicia isn’t as good as it is out of a bottle, my notes suggest (though the context to that comment is lost).

We’re a little the worse for wear, but nowhere near as steaming as the hen party to our right. Some of them are dressed up as Heineken bottles. Crazy night, they’re having, albeit in this rather sleepy off-central bar.

We have a couple and then meander round the corner and over the road, up to our apartment.

1346. Tue 21/6/22: Aroma Café Bar, Malaga

Beer: Estrella Galicia 5.0%

Back from Malaga city centre, specifically the smaller bus station where we’ve waved me brother and his missus on their bus to Nerja. They’re starting their hols, our plane back to Luton is tomorrow.

We choose this bar ‘cause we both need a wee. There’s a better looking bar next door, but it sells Cruzcampo so we choose this one. We can only have one, they advise us. It’s 8:30pm, but they’re closing. Their toilet has a sliding door without a lock – which requires my keeping guard for Steph.

The beer is fine.

The staff of the Aroma Café – having told us we’ve got to get gone – set up tables for a party to which we’ve not been invited.

987. Thu 27/2/20: El Pinar, A Coruña

Beer: Estrella Galicia (bottled) 4.7%

Predominantly a meat purveyor, rather than a bar – but what meats! Gratis tapas delivers slices of wonderful jamon, salami and chorizo. All delicious.

We’ve been walking all afternoon, around A Coruña’s beautiful (but blowy) headland. Our feet are throbbing.

The meat counter is a hive of activity and conversation between staff – who are mostly cutting up meat and customers, mostly ordering meat. We only have one beer.

834. Sat 12/10/19: Jamón del Medio, Valencia

Beer: Estrella Galicia 5.0%

Very bright and polished bar/restaurant on what would have been the Turia riverside. The football, Norway v Spain is on the telly. A huge great waiter looms over us… we’re not too shabbily dressed, but I think he regards us as not quite hitting the target demographic. That said, he was entirely charming as he tried to politely see us off.

Can we just have a beer at the bar?

No.

Can we sit down and have a beer?

No.

No!? Really?

The place was near empty. The waiter, though negative in his answers, seemed entirely affable and, as the place was near empty – and we weren’t taking no for an answer, genially relented.

We sit and watch the football, have a beer – decide we’ll just stay for one. It’s 0-0 after 29 minutes. Norway look quite good. We decide to have another and watch until half time.

This is a jamón heavy establishment, there’s a clue in the name. Steph worries that, given her close proximity to the hams that are a-hanging, she may get dripped on. These things can happen, those little umbrellas can’t catch it all; but, as it is, I think she escaped without being lard splatted.

1300. Tue 14/6/22: Bar Santa Maria, El Puerto de Santa Maria

Beer: Estrella Galicia 5.0%

Airy little bar on what seems to be El Puerto de Santa Maria’s culinary heart (but where, like a black hole in the heart of a galaxy, there is no food to speak of). Still, it’s nice to get out of the ridiculously intensifying afternoon heat.

Other drinkers are of middle-aged vintage, and I’d guess very much part of the El Puerto drinking set: very much a Wetherspoonesque quality to the clientele, albeit in much warmer surroundings.

It’s all reasonably nice and cool in the shade, and the bar is faintly ramshackle. I have awful problems ordering a second beer. The locals, of course, are being well looked after – it’s all very understandable and predictable, but my notes record a contemporary feeling of increasing peevishness. Idiot.

In retrospect it was just nice to get out of the heat.

1000. Fri 28/2/20: O Gato Negro, Santiago de Compostela

Beer: Estrella Galicia (bottled) 4.7% 

Excellent little back street bar/restaurant to mark the 1000^th of my reports for this here blog (what with the other contributors, its actually the 1543^rd). It’d be wrong to suggest we hadn’t scouted out what looked like Santiago de Compostela’s most interesting bar to mark the event, but this really is a corker. And it’s chaos.

The place has not long opened for the night, and is already packed. Standing room only at the (apparently home-made) bar just inside the door. The bar is between three to five metres long – and past that are up to a half dozen tables. Another room at the back of this one has room for about the same number again. All are taken.

We manage to squeeze a position at the bar and attempt to order octopus from the main barman/owner who seems to be running the place single-handedly. He’s not. He has three or four staff, but he seems to be all over the shop – taking orders from here there and everywhere. He has an excellent affable bar presence.

He takes our order for octopus and within a few minutes deliveries us a plate of squid, cooked in its own black ink. I’d probably have accepted the alternative, but Steph won’t touch it (it’s not the most aesthetically pleasing dish in the world, admittedly). We manage to attract the owner’s attention. He’s not hugely happy to discuss the matter with us, what with serving so many locals who speak the same language, but one of the aforementioned staff tell him he’s got it wrong – he relents and delivers the correct fish dish. Again, he doesn’t seem overjoyed at the protracted transaction, but he deals with it with good grace and friendly professionalism. Liked him, and his bar, a lot.

Last bar/night in Santiago de Compostela – we’re off to Vigo in the morning.

Will we ever get to Santiago de Compostela again? I hope so. If/when we do, we’ll certainly be bothering the good folk at O Gato Negro again… maybe a quiet(er) Tuesday or Wednesday night would suit us better, though the Friday night hubbub was something to experience (and be an annoying part of).

356. Sat 17/3/18: Bar Europa, Seville

Beer: Estrella Galicia 5.5%

We’re wet, we’re cold, we’re miserable and old. We like this bar though. It seems genuinely aged, some lovely tiles inside and out… maybe it’s a little too pleased with itself.

Stephanie, bless her, seems more interested in how the Hatters are doing in Newport – and the Town’s push for promotion – rather than our pushing for pneumonia.

The bar is reasonably bustling, full of tourists. We manage to grab a place to stand adjacent to the bar, and I take a few snaps of the elaborate beer font.

Town draw 1-1. It’ll do.

982. Wed 26/2/20: Habana, A Coruña

Beer: Estrella Galicia 4.7%

It says something, and I’m not sure what, about the ubiquity of Spanish regional brews – that one is served the same beer in this down to earth family run bar as in the last place, a highly polished and soulless chain (or at least chain-like) hostelry. Pleasingly, perhaps predictably, the beer here is significantly better than in establishment #981… though, again, I’m surprised (albeit rarely) how keg/tank stored lager can be gotten so wrong. It’s not rocket science – or cask – now is it?

Anyway, I’d neither want to damn Habana with faint praise – nor claim it’s the best place in the world. No, it’s a nice little family one room bar. It seems that, other than the extended family dining at the other end of the bar, we’re the only customers.

On the telly we see the quiz show, where contestants have to diffuse a “bomb” full of coloured water, that we’ve only ever seen twice at Mesón Rodriguez in Cuenca on two separate trips (#610 and #821). When that’s over, it’s to the news: which is full of Coronavirus. No cases reported yet in Spain, but the outbreak in northern Italy is scary.

By 09:15pm the family have finished, and those manning the bar are starting to pack up/close down for the night. That’s fine by us. Unlike Porto, where the bars seemed relatively few and far between, A Coruña (or at least this part of it) is full of places to go; almost all selling the same beer, but when in Galicia…