The city of Granada is almost worldwide famous for the Alhambra, its university atmosphere and tapas, most of them free, which populate the many bars and restaurants in the city.
However, The end of free tapas may be near in the Nasrid capital. Or so at least he pretends Paco Cuenca, mayor of the city, who has closed the Saborea sin hurry Granada gastronomic event with a complete declaration of intent: free tapas have to end.
This is how the local newspaper explains it Grenada Todaywhich echoes the statements of the socialist councilor: “We are not going to promote more free tapas, ever again. You have to pay for tapas because they are haute cuisine, as has been shown today“.
The debate is not new, because even hoteliers like Chech Gonzalez, chef of the María de la O restaurant, do not bite their tongues about a tapas tourism that, moreover, has been fed institutionally. “It has been sold as the only option in Granada. From the institutions they only talk about the cover and tourism comes to the cover. Tourists never think of going to a restaurant to eat”, he explained to WTP.
In his words, he considers that “I don’t think it should disappear, it is a sign of identity, but it has gotten out of hand.” A reality that, transferred to the gastronomic scene, can weigh down establishments that bet on something more than tapas. The relevance of specialized criticism suggests this.
Despite its tourist importance (the fifth city that receives the most travelers from Spain), neither Granada nor its province have a single Michelin star on the map. It is not that Michelin is the only scale to measure the gastronomic quality of an area, but it is, to say the least, striking. To put it in context, only five Spanish provinces do not have a Michelin star: Lugo, Ávila, Palencia, Granada and Huelva (which lost the one it had, Acanthum, by chef Xanty Elías, to change projects).
The debate is not new, but from the Granada town hall they seem convinced to eradicate the free cover of their establishments. Cuenca summed it up like this: “If we talk about gastronomy, we have to empower people to have reasons to sleep longer and one of those hooks is to stay for lunch or dinner”.
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“Tapas have to be paid for because they are haute cuisine”
In fact, as they warn from Granada Hoy in the appointment to Cuenca, the Saborea Sin Prisa Granada contest is rooted in those positions: never again to free tapas. In the words of the mayor, forceful, there is talk of “not promoting more free tapas, never again. You have to pay for tapas because they are haute cuisine. When we talk about Saborea unhurried we talk about something leisurely, we didn’t want to call it a tapa again because we want people to sit in the establishment and enjoy the gastronomy”.
A lawful intention from the Nasrid town hall, although complex to tackle, since there are many comfortable innkeepers in a free tapas that allows you to work at volume, while those who seek to raise the quality of tapas see how they cannot compete in the same way when it comes to quality. However, there are benchmarks in Granada for quality and paid tapas, such as the La Tana bar or the FM bar, two paths that can continue to be explored and that justify tapas and bars that are famous on a national level.
For Cuenca, the level of Granada’s gastronomy “is of excellence and within that framework you have to move”, pick up Grenada Today, fleeing in addition to the comparisons that show that decoupling between Granada and its neighboring provinces. To give an example, Jaén has two restaurants with a Michelin star, Córdoba too (including the bi-starred Noor) and Málaga presents another ‘stellar’ with José Carlos García.
Beyond the Andalusian reflection, Granada’s intention goes through emulate cities like San Sebastián, Bilbao, Logroño or León, cradles and meccas of Spanish tapas and, in most cases, always for a fee.
An intention that Paco Cuenca summarized in that “You don’t just have to aim for stars [Michelin] or suns [Repsol], but to know where we are going”. Now it only remains to be seen if the message permeates Granada’s hoteliers, divided by the decision, and among the public.
Change a gastronomic idiosyncrasy from above, even without public support, It means opening a season of good guys and bad guys to check who collects the tapas or who stops charging them, because quality is not the same in all establishments and the generalization made about quality is not necessarily true.
Images | unsplash
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