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| - We'd been passing by the "Opening Soon" notices on the outside of this place for a long time and recently place opened up. We decided to give it a try on a chilly night mainly because it's close by. The skinny: you'll eat and drink just fine here and you'll enjoy the open space upstairs. Solid 3.5 Just don't expect a Barcelona vibe.
We were seated upstairs - it's a selling feature. It was about half full on a Tuesday night around 8:30. The roof and walls retract to make this a patio on warm days, so at first I was surprised to see that there were tons of TV screens affixed to any available surface. Seven screens, all tuned to sports. I was more surprised to see some of the Spanish fare in the menu emerging in the form of burgers, pizzas, cheese sticks, and wings. Mind you, we didn't have the paella, which is their main Spanish-style offering. The tapas list is not too long, and we chose veal bombas (meatballs with tomato sauce), calamari (fried) and patatas bravas. We had a Barça G & T to start, which was delivered in elegant wine glass and tasted good - with orange essence, just like a negroni.
All three dishes delivered well, if on the lukewarm side, as if they'd just been warmed and prepped, but not actually prepared. The three were tasty, but there was nothing stand-outish about the taste or texture any of them. The meatballs (3 of them for $16) were both a touch overdone, and not hot enough. The tomato sauce they were served with tasted somewhat canned / commercial. The sauces with the calamari ($14) were much fresher. The potatoes ($10) are interesting, smashed new-ish potatoes (new-ish since quite thick-ish skins) served with a fried egg on top and in an orangey tomato sauce that might have had cheese (feta) in it? This is a decent twist on bravas, if you're in the mood for a plate of fried potatoes.
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