Church Street, Brighton (nestled between Waggon & Horses and the Black Horse)
As you may have noticed, I’m not really one for going all out in researching the places that I review. I don’t want to drone on and on about a place if all a person wants to know is whether or not they’re going to enjoy a meal there. That’s one of the things that puts me off most restaurant reviews, the sheer volume of information that your average, everyday person doesn’t really want to know. They also tend to be slightly pretentious and therefore alienate many potential readers. They don’t keep it real like yours truly. Fo’ shizzle.
However, I do think a little bit of background info is nice sometimes, if only because Brighton is a small town and it’s nice to know a bit about the people that own these lovely eateries that make Brighton the town we love. Why am I telling you all of this? Well, simply because while googling for info about Bodega D’Tapa I discovered (courtesy of the Argus) some pretty neat (that’s right. neat.) things about the owners of this teeny gem of a place. The owner, Genaro De Cala, is of quite the foodie aristocracy. His father’s family have been producing wine, sherry and vinegar in Spain since 1829 and his mother’s family have been producing manually-pressed olive oil at their own mills for about 200 years! As a Heather would say, “Colour me impressed girl.”
So as you can probably guess, not only do they serve up a selection of tapas but they also have some fine imported Spanish goods at your perusal, as well as high quality meats and cheeses. What high quality cheese it was! I love manchego (as I’ve mentioned in previous posts) and the manchego here was top notch. I went for lunch with the hub-bub in tow and my trusty French sidekick, Delphine. In addition to the lovely manchgo we also ordered the Iberian Selection, a plate of different Spanish cured meats, and the chorizo was simply divine. In addition to these we ordered some roasted red peppers that were served with spears of pickled white asparagus, olives, bread and the lentil casserole. Also at our table was the obligatory pitcher of sangria. Did I mention that we were out back in the wee garden? It’s all very rustic. When I say rustic I mean I was sitting on a bit of wooden bench that was very wobbly. I tried another bit of bench but it was equally as wobbly. All part of the charm, eh?
I wouldn’t recommend this place for vegetarians as I only noted about 3 items on their (naturally small) menu that were veggie. This doesn’t mean that they couldn’t whip something up for you I suppose, I never thought to ask. Also, don’t plan on coming here with your whole office for an evening out as they would be hard pressed to seat even 20 people. That’s part of its charm though, it’s one of those places you can just drift into, have a wee bite and a couple of rounds, then drift back out into the North Laine and go about your day. I’ll be back, if only to get some of Genaro’s madre’s olive oil.