As my wife and I are wont to do around her birthday, we ended up in Chicago. Last year, I took my wife to a casual French restaurant (which I never wrote up on Road Tips because it was sort of during my between-gig hiatus) and she was keen to go back again this year. But I also remembered the tab for the dinner (upwards to 3 large bills) and sort of coughed a bit when she mentioned going back. I thought it may be nice to try something completely different and out of our element when it came to her birthday dinner. I looked for ideas on-line, especially in the northern lake shore suburbs of Chicago. And one place sort of jumped out at me - Tapas Barcelona in Evanston. We had never really been to a true tapas restaurant in our travels together (although my wife had been to a handful of tapas places when she was visiting her daughter in Spain a number of years ago).
Actually, I had been to a tapas restaurant in Chicago a number of years ago. A friend of mine took me to Cafe Ba-Ba-Reeba, a Lettuce Entertain You restaurant developed by Rich Melman. It's said that Cafe Ba-Ba-Reeba was the first tapas restaurant in Chicago when it opened in 1985.
(A side note - after going to Cafe Ba-Ba-Reeba, I was telling my late father that I had gone to a tapas bar with a friend. Knowing that my friend was a woman, he said, "Why in the hell would she take you to a topless bar?" Dad, no - a TAPAS bar, not a topless bar...)
Tapas bars caught on quickly in the greater Chicagoland area after the success of Cafe Ba-Ba-Reeba and today there are over two dozen places that specialize in Mediterranean small plates in the region. But Tapas Barcelona may be the most authentic.
Giovanni "Gio" Garelli grew up in his parent's tapas restaurant in Seville, Spain. His parents were both of Italian ancestry, but moved to Spain and ran a tapas bar for nearly 50 years. Garelli wanted to see the world, so he struck out to America and ended up in Chicago in the 1980's. Garelli worked in some of the finest restaurants in Chicago in the 80's and 90's before becoming involved as the managing partner in Grappo, an upscale Italian restaurant, in the early 90's.
At the same time he was working at Grappo, he came up with a concept for an authentic tapas bar of which small plate restaurants were still sort of a novelty in Chicago. Using recipes from his family's tapas restaurant in Spain, all he needed was a spot in which to put his restaurant. He found a space in downtown Evanston not far from Northwestern University that had seating for 100 inside, and seating for another 80 people on the wide sidewalk patio in front of the restaurant in warmer months, similar to many tapas restaurants found in Spain. Garelli opened Tapas Barcelona in 1995.
Garelli continues to travel to Spain two or three times a year to come up with more ideas and recipes for Tapas Barcelona. But his staples on the menu haven't changed in years. Garelli's goal is to transport his patrons back to Spain and to have a true tapas experience without leaving Evanston.
We had reservations for 7:00 p.m. and we pulled up in front of Tapas Barcelona just before that. (see map) We found some parking just down the street on Chicago Ave. and went inside.
They had our table ready for us and the hostess put us next to one of the windows at the front of the restaurant and she dropped off a couple menus. It was a pretty cold evening and the windows on the front side of Tapas Barcelona are designed to open in warmer weather. And the metal panes weren't sealed all that well, especially at the bottom. We ended up putting our coats on the ledge under the window to keep the cold air from seeping in. But it was still chilly in there.
The restaurant was quite cozy with the tables in close proximity. Banquette seating with tables were along one wall. The floor was a series of checkered tiles with a lot of wood accents for half-walls and trim around the room.
The bar area faced the front as you walk into Tapas Barcelona. We didn't notice a lot of people hanging at the bar while we were there. But there was a steady crowd that was coming in and out of the restaurant. We took that as a good sign considering it was a mid-week night when we went.
Our waitress came over to greet us and to take our drink order. She had a heavy accent and I thought that she said her name was Claudia, but when I got the bill later on that evening it said her name was Clara. She rolled her "r" so effectively that I thought she said "Claudia". She looked like a young Salma Hayek and she was definitely Spanish. I got a glass of their house-made sangria while my wife ordered the "Trip to Spain" - vodka and Grand Marnier mixed with cranberry juice.
There were so many interesting sounding items on the menu at Tapas Barcelona that I really didn't know which way to go. We just decided to jump in and start ordering things until we got full. After we finished our drinks, we ordered up a bottle of the Bodegas Faustino VII Tempranillo, a hearty red from the Rioja wine region in Spain.
The first thing we got was the Hojaldre Catalan - a Catalonian puffed pastry with sautéed salmon, scallops and chopped tomatoes in a garlic butter sauce. This was absolutely scrumptious. The puffed pastry was light and a nice complement with the sautéed seafood with the chopped tomatoes garnishing the dish.
The other item we ordered right off the bat was the Pulpito a la Plancha - grilled baby octopus with charred endive (escarole). This wasn't exactly what I thought it would be, but it was still very tasty. The octopus had a forward charred taste to it and it cut apart very easily.
Our 2nd round consisted of the Salpicon de Mariscos - basically a Spanish ceviche with chunks of lobster, shrimp, calamari and octopus marinated with lime and served with some olive oil and lemon wedges. Chopped green, orange and red bell peppers came with the ceviche. That, too, was excellent.
My wife thought she needed some grilled vegetables, so we ordered up the Vegetables del Tiempo. They consisted of sliced tomatoes, asparagus spears, zucchini and egg plant and were served with a balsamic vinegar and olive oil. I let my wife concentrate on that plate as I was trying to eat most of the ceviche.
We thought we'd better go with some meat items for our next round and I ordered up the Chuletitas de Cordero - baby lamb chops in a red wine sauce served with couscous on the side. The lamb chops were tender and easy to cut. They were cooked to a perfect medium and the sauce just enhanced the taste of the lamb. My wife likes couscous and she concentrated more on that than the lamb - which left more for me!
The other meat plate we ordered was the Pincho de Solomillo - grilled beef tenderloin skewers served caramelized onions. A whipped horseradish sauce came on the side with the beef skewers. The beef skewers were cooked to a medium rare temperature and very tender to the bite. It was tough to say which I liked better between the baby lamb chops and the beef tenderloin skewers.
There were a couple other things that we were thinking of getting - the Chipirones a la Plancha which were grilled squid with lemon, garlic and olive oil; the Albondigas con Tomate - beef meatballs with potatoes in a tomato sauce; and the Queso de Cabra Con Tomate - baked goat cheese in a tomato sauce. My wife thought about the Pollo al Whisky - grilled chicken with roasted potatoes in a roasted garlic sauce. But we decided that we'd had enough and wanted to get some dessert.
They had a vanilla flan with a light sugar syrup on the dessert menu that we selected. A mint leaf came as a garnish on the flan. Spongy, soft and creamy with a thin layer of caramelized caramel on the top, it was a great compliment to the meal.
But they also had a Bizcocho Borracho in the menu - basically a tiramisu with a cream sauce. Since we couldn't make up our mind which one to get, we got both. I will say that the flan was much better than the tiramisu.
Going to a tapas bar had been something my wife and I had wanted to do together for a long time. And Tapas Barcelona turned out to be the perfect time for us to enjoy tapas together. The food options were all interesting and what we had didn't disappoint us - maybe other than the Spanish tiramisu. But the seafood selections, the lamb and beef dishes, even the grilled vegetable dish that my wife had was very good. Clara was certainly patient with us as we navigated the menu trying to figure out what we wanted to get during our time there. Tapas Barcelona was a great diversion from our usual restaurants and one that was a very good choice for a birthday dinner for my wife.