“MY drink is water bright” goes the old Band of Hope song, designed to counter the lure of the demon drink. And here I am in that temperance body’s old Deansgate HQ sitting at a bar. I make no excuses and leave when Natalia Esquerdo pours me me a copa of bone-dry Manzanilla sherry as one of her bar staff deftly slides a dish of olives alongside. Around me the softest of soft launches is going on.
Tapeo, very promising addition to Manchester city centre’s burgeoning Spanish bar/restaurant scene (close to 10 on or just off Deansgate at the last count), opens on Friday, May 13. The name means to go on an Iberian-style bar crawl, appropriately enough. Yet it is not cashing in on our now insatiable craving for Iberico ham and tapas. Tapeo has been three years in gestation long before the arrival of our indispensable El Gato Negro, Iberica, La Bandera and Lunya.
Indeed, Natalia and chef husband Nacho can lay claim to sparking the entire Spanish invasion. Their Spanish food importing company, Lola España, was an original supplier for La Tasca before it turned into a high street conquistador. Natalia came to the city to a translator course at the University and never left.
The Esquerdos are from Valencia, so know a thing or two about that city’s most famous food contribution, Paella. Even the house cava, Pago de Tharsys, is from their native region, not from Catalonia. After only a few minutes in vivacious Natalia’s company you gauge how important the provenance of foodstuffs is to them.
The same attention to detail extends to the decor in this 120-cover restaurant extending into the basement. With moat fittings imported from Spain you understand why it has taken them three years to get off the ground.
TOM likes the way this former model shop has been transformed into the kind of contemporary taperia you’d walk into in Ciutat Vella (old town). Not a bullfighting poster in sight; no Gypsy Kings soundtrack; no soggy croquetas cowering under glass.
Instead, Moorish-style mosaics decorate the bars on both floors; there’s smart herringbone parquet flooring; copper features, particularly in the basement private dining room;, and there’s fine leather seating. Spanish to the core, it fits in with the glorious architectural heritage of the 1904 building (more so than Turkish neighbour Topkapi).
So look out for the red brick building with its bold yellow sandstone stripes and porthole-style upstairs windows. Inside expect Spanish favourites such as suckling pig, milk-fed lamb and chargrilled octopus, with home-made desserts a speciality.
House wine from a strong regional list is Torres Solar (solar tower’) from Manzanares in central Spain.
Tapeo, 209 Deansgate, Manchester M3 3NW 0161 832 2700. @TapeoandWine
