Let's have fun!
Live Barcelona a tremendous gastronomic moment (Albert Adrià and his madness, Paco Pérez and his madness, Hideki Matsuhisa, Jordi Cruz, Carles Abellán or the Torres twins) but the Arola of the Hotel Arts has -still has- a quality that is as easy to write here as it is difficult To express: fun . Eating at Arola is fun in the most honest, free, unprejudiced and innocent sense of the word. And I say this without ulterior motives or gastronomic chronicler's rants because the idea is so mistreated that sometimes -so many- we forget what it's about: fun. Joy. Pleasure. Meeting.
The Arts, for starters. Let's see how I explain it to you: I travel, live, eat, sleep and write about hotels and restaurants; great friends behind bars and a handful of stories that will never - ever - be published here or anywhere else. So maybe I shouldn't say what I'm about to say: there is no hotel like the Arts in Spain . Not like this, not with that hall that is a still from a Wong Kar-wai movie, those shops (Bel), the Private Club for the last suites, **that epic breakfast and the perfect views** behind the steel exoskeleton white and its green glass facade.
Perfect view: gastronomic plus
At the Arola you are greeted by a terrace facing Barceloneta, Frank Gehry's fish and the Beach Boys under the musical baton of Natxo Arola (the very brother). I don't know if this is avant-garde cuisine, haute cuisine or mood food, and I say this because something more important than a bunch of shitty labels is perceived here: let's have a good time. Have fun , exactly that seems the gastronomic motto of Sergio Arola in this new stage (which, after all, is his usual one) stage: "I make the kitchen that I like to eat".
No trace here of lofty speech, gastronomic pretentiousness or genuflections before the staff of the "enlightened" (Sergi has him screwed up before the 50Best and other coquinera intelligentsia, and he knows it, and he peels it) only simple cooking; perfect tapas in its execution, dishes that accompany the table and do not interrupt never the important things: conversation, confessions, drinks, meeting and -your- smile. From the first drink of Pisco Granada with which the Pica Pica menu (75 turkeys) starts, after the appetizers, the marinated sardines, stuffed with herring roe, and the beef steak tartare with soy and ginger infusion take over the table.
Arola's patatas bravas: a reinvented classic
Here are the classics: the mixed patatas bravas from Arola and the escalivada with red peppers and anchovies from l'Escala. With this kitchen direct, playful, easy in his intentions ) there is only one possible wine: champagne. Champagne and nothing else . For example, the Egly-Ouriet Grand Cru that paints the yellow brick road with gold and chamomile to the scallop in citronette with currants and the dessert with toasted aromas with which it ended (because damn it, it ended) this menu as forgettable as it is necessary . Here's a toast to light, trivial gastronomy, without duplicity: happy.
He said Santi Santamaria that true cooking aims to make others happy. We take note, Santi.
Sergi Arola, let's have fun!