Sticks of Fire: a Tampa blog

I’ve never been to Spain, but i kind of like the music…

As previously mentioned, I had a recent date to a Jobsite play, one that started off with dinner at Spain Restaurant, on Tampa Street just south of Twiggs. It seems that no one knows about Spain; I asked my roommate if she’d been there, and she replied “that place at Channelside?” (referring to Tinatapas). Other questions about “the tapas place downtown” were responded to with quizzical looks or “topless place?”

Spain has been around since 1980, and offers a uniquely Galician experience with hot and cold tapas as well as entrees. It is also very white. Usually when I refer to a place in Tampa as being “very white” I am talking about Lutz. In this instance I’m referring to the all-white decoration and outfitting of employees. It’s a striking appearance.

They also feature live entertainment most nights; on this particular Friday, it was a large guitarist who looked like a henchman from a Guillermo del Toro film. Every time you glanced at him, he was staring back at you with suspicion (or intrigue?).

Tapas, of course, have a long history in Spanish heritage. As I explained to my date (and, later, my server, who’d not been versed on the background), tapas were originally invented to keep flies out of the wine glasses when pub-drinkers went to el baño. They’ve grown successively more complicated since then; my date and I sampled four of Spain’s offerings:

Chorizos al Jerez (sausage in sherry) — $7.00
Camarones al Ajillo (sauteed shrimp with garlic and olive oil) — $9.00
Filete de Res (beef tenderloins sauteed with onions, mushrooms and sherry) — $9.00
Pollo Villarroy (breaded chicken tenders in a béchamel sauce) — $7.00

A large basket of crusty bread accompanied the food, and I washed everything down with a bottle of Estrella. My favorite was the chorizo; the sausage slices were spicy and went perfectly with the beer and bread. The beef was fantastic as well, almost a sort of beef stew but tasting nothing like beef stew. The pollo was unimpressive on its own, but the béchamel sauce was freakin’ UNREAL. It looks like barbecue sauce but tastes like burning. Happy burning. The shrimp reminded me of ceviche, but was cooked. It only avoids further mention because the other three tapas were great.

From observing other parties as they ate, I found they were ordering a lot more tapas than we; furthermore, our server kept asking if we’d like any more. We didn’t even finish the four we ordered, as they’re sufficiently large. If you’re not a complete lardass, two per person is more than enough. If you are a lardass, you might want to order more. The prices are cheap and the Estrella is all sorts of fantastic.

I paid the bill and we walked back to the performing arts center. On the way, it drizzled slightly, which gave way to this:

(Photo courtesy newwavegurly and a Creative Commons License.)

I could barely stand to enter the Shimberg Playhouse. I didn’t want to turn away. It was the baddest-ass rainbow(s) I’d ever seen in my life. I hope you saw it, too.