Road Trip Part 1: Farewell And Adieu To You, Fair Spanish Ladies

Several people asked me about having a going-away party, but I wasn't in the mood for such a thing. However, I did want to hang out with some people for a while before I left, so I suggested we get together at Bar Celona on Friday afternoon for a few drinks after the movers came by. The back patio of Bar Celona - in the alley, away from the traffic of Colorado Blvd -  has been a favorite spot for me and my friends to hang out for more than half a decade now. Several of my friends stopped by and after a round or two of drinks we picked over the happy hour menu for some snacks. (All of Bar Celona's happy hour items are five bucks between 4-7.)

Amy went inside to order some food and she ordered a lot of it. We started with the tortilla española - as the name indicates, a Spanish omelet with onions and peppers and a mild romesco sauce. Although I would have liked some extra spice to it, I certainly liked the dish.

Albondigas: meatballs with saffron and allspice, tossed with some cheese (perhaps manchego?) and arugula. These were delicious and I'm glad Amy placed more than one order. They went perfectly with my Dos Equis beers. 

 

The sliders were fine: not bad by any means, but there was absolutely nothing special about them. (They would have been better if served on a softer bun.) Still, I ate at least one, probably two, and had no complaints.

Three orders of Spanish flatbread also hit the table. 

My favorite was the Spanish sausage flatbread, with chorizo. I've had this several times and it always hits the spot.

This flatbread looked strange - I have no idea what was on it - and I did not have any, but other people seemed to enjoy it. 

I have had the patatas bravas at Bar Celona dozens of times over the years. These were by far the best I've ever had. (Other people agreed with me.)

We slowed down a little after shovelling in all that food. Some people took off, others showed up, some who had left even returned. There would be more food later on. 

I won't say who this person is, but let's just say his name has appeared here many times over the years. He was hanging out down at Lucky Baldwin's (as I mentioned when I wrote about the place a couple of weeks ago, there were years when I was there almost every day) so he brought me a Guinness - almost always my beer of choice back in the day - over to Bar Celona.

Later in the evening (well after happy hour was over) we were hungry again so we picked up the menus and placed more orders.

Elizabeth ordered the piquillo peppers stuffed with goat cheese and served with romesco sauce. These were outstanding. We could have eaten three orders of them.

Of course there was another round of those patatas bravas. 

I've never been a fan of the empanadas at Bar Celona. I feel they are always overcooked dough with a flavorless interior. So I didn't try any of these. But other people enjoyed them. 

Grilled bread with cheese, fresh garlic and tomatoes. Fantastic. Well, once I took off them tomato. 

Dave got a skewer of chicken with grilled bread and chimichurri sauce. I'd never tried this before but took a tiny taste and really enjoyed it.

I stayed out much later than I had planned (Bryce and I could not remember how many years it had been - probably 6 or 7 - since we'd had a beer together after midnight) but it was worth it to hang out with everyone. And the food was certainly better than what I had the next night on the road. But more on that tomorrow.