The pirate tavern of Ángel Léon
The more restaurants I know the more I appreciate gestures of warmth and joy. The more I travel, the more value affection has, the love behind every dish and the simple pleasure of gastronomy; Claudio Rodríguez wrote that "always, always / the deepest truth is joy" and how true joy is in Cadiz —in its markets, its streets, its Caleta, its “potholes” and its tabancos.
That's why I like more and more houses like The Tavern of the Chef of the Sea , the pirate tavern of ** Ángel León and Marta Girón ** in Puerto Escondido under that same vault where two Stars dreamed to aponiente , his older brother who today —you see— navigates radiantly towards that immense longing: to be one of the most important gastronomic restaurants on the planet.
"Aponientito"
Well, well, that cover mutated into hundreds of colored boxes and in this tavern with no more pretensions than to fill with joy The Port of Santa Maria , what they call “Aponientito”.
With the light spirit of those sherry cigars (‘stall, store or drawer that is placed in the streets or in the markets for the sale of groceries’) Marta slips us some of the whys.
The pirate tavern of Ángel Léon
“Coincidences of life, two years before meeting Ángel again I was about to open a tabanco in Jerez —where the word tobacco — so imagine what it means to me to share a way of life with my husband and achieve another of my dreams; the concept of tabanco was the sale of wine and cured meats from the land , unlike the Chef del Mar Tavern, where you eat and drink differently, but deliciously, because we want the customer to enjoy the Ángel's kitchen in a casual and affordable way and breathe in the good atmosphere that the team tries to transmit ”.
I fell in love with her “angel” (that quality so Cadiz), his fun cuisine, Cadiz warmth and dishes for memory like the Fried Barbate sea bass painted with red mojo sauce, the estuary shrimp saam or the table of marine sausages.
And yours, Marta? “It is a letter with hits like the grilled sardine with aubergines , the sticky plankton rice or the marine sausages... if I didn't work here I would come regularly, for sure, to eat the fried baby squid pickled with carrots , the corn and mackerel gazpacho or enjoy the frying a whole sea bass painted with red mojo sauce …”.
In short, it is a luxury and a blessing to have La Taberna, that "Aponientito" where they live historical dishes such as creamy rice with pure plankton and alioli with scallops or cuttlefish croquettes ; it is a luxury to always return to Cádiz (“Cádiz is our home, the base of our lives and way of living, because in Cádiz you live well and my son grows up in one of the best environments. Cadiz is light and joy , and for us it is love and family ”) and remember that life is these moments, this joy . Nothing more.
Pirate life best life
Address: Puerto Escondido Street, El Puerto de Sta María, Cádiz See map
Telephone: 956 11 20 93
Schedule: From Monday to Saturday from 1:00 p.m. to 4:15 p.m. and from 8:30 p.m. to 12:00 a.m.
Half price: €30