Saturday, March 21, 2009

Madrid-Vancouver



A touch shell shocked from the carnage of the slaughter house and suddenly feeling the fatigue from too many late night/early morning combos, we headed out for Madrid.

I began the drive, but within 30 mins, as we began our descent out of the mountains, I started to nod off. Brian took over (he drives for a living) and with Scott already asleep, I drifted off to Brian's grumbling about a busman's holiday.

I awakened to the beauty of Madrid and instantly regretted not making more time for this city. After the usual check-in, parking of car, etc we made our way to Madrid's "Old Town". This part of Madrid has the city's highest concentration of Tapas Bars or Taberna.

We literally were able to ramble from store front to store front, drinking small beers & small pours of local wines, and eating very conceivable small food item.
The main differences between the Pinxos Bar in San Sebastian and the Taberna of Madrid were A) no dogs in Madrid, B) Madrid operations refrigerate their food items in display cabinets instead of leaving them out on the counter tops for hours, C) Bar counters in Madrid are lined with seated patrons, while in San Sebastian everybody stands, D) in Madrid, people tried to speak English to us E) Taberna in Madrid had large seated restaurant like areas.

Our night was too short and the choices too many, so that by 10pm we were hammered and stuffed.

Next morning Brian and myself headed to the airport; Brian flying back to Ireland and I back to Vancouver. Scott stayed a while longer before heading back to New York. Our trip was done, and now we would begin the task of incorporating the information that we had into our restaurant design and concept.

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