Tula's living room
“Two twentysomethings meet working at Quique Dacosta's restaurant (3 Michelin stars) in Denia . They coincide only for 3 months, but since then, they no longer separate: after going through other gastronomic temples such as Casa Gerardo with Marcos Morán (1 Michelin star) and even for a beach bar on the Costa Brava They decide to open their own restaurant.
It looks like the script of a series Foodie Love , but it is the story of Borja and Clara : two Madrilenians, now in their thirties, who in 2016 dreamed of opening something of their own in their city... until the little town in Alicante where Clara had always spent the summer crossed their path: “we were about to open in **Santa Engracia with Ponzano* *, but we left a weekend to Jávea to see my mother, who lives there, and a friend told us that there was an interesting place on the Arenal beach. We went out of curiosity: we saw that the kitchen was set up, it fit us in terms of space and the necessary investment was infinitely less than in Madrid. Back home, in the car, we devised the menu. Two days later we were signing and a month later, on May 31, we open . We didn't have time to lose: we didn't have much savings and we had to start working right away”.
Although Borja admits that it is not what he had thought: “ I wanted to set up a gastronomic restaurant , but we realized that Jávea needed something between Bonamb (2 Michelin stars) and rice restaurants , that there was a gap to cover”.
Borja and Clara will receive you in Tula
That change of plans marked what is today ** Tula ** : a restaurant of 6 tables with a kitchen of (only) 6 square meters where two people work Borja and Enrique Puchades ), something unusual in restaurants of this type.
“ it's a tetris . If the dishwasher door is open you cannot turn around, if someone is in the fryer you cannot open the oven, if someone is in the corner of the Thermomix you cannot open my bell, if someone is in my fire you cannot open the bottom camera... But the secret is to have order, discipline, creativity and desire ”.
And elaborate everything every day: they can't store anything . Borja acknowledges that what they initially saw as handicaps (for example, not having refrigeration chambers) now it's almost a responsibility.
Borja and Clara will receive you in Tula
Despite everything, or precisely because of it, this year the Michelin Guide has noticed them, just as we did some time ago thanks to the gastronomic radar of Jesús Terrés and, more recently, because of his cheesecake. They also resonated in Madrid Fusion 2019 , when they were third in the award for revelation chef .
And now Tula Be part of this new generation of “starred” restaurants that do not have a tasting menu or a white tablecloth . It seems that things are changing. At last . Yes, they are a rare avis: here, the protocol in the room is governed by Clara's smile and the times are set by the diner, who is the one who designs his own menu: his menu consists of 11 savories (many of them snack ) and 5 desserts. Plus several off menu (from three to six) that change daily.
“And we will continue in that line. All the dishes are designed to be shared, but I separate them into as many portions as there are diners at the table”. Borja is clear that, despite the newly released star, they want to continue with their natural evolution and along the same lines. “ Tula is and will continue to be that restaurant for the whole week, in which the notary of the town comes daily to eat a partridge with a glass of wine for €26 (even though our average ticket is between 40 and 60 euros ), but at night a group of Dutch, Belgian or French come who are spending the summer here and seek in this town the gastronomic level of their cities”.
Of course, people from Madrid and Valencia are also among its regular customers. And they all go looking for the same thing: local cuisine, seasonal … and that much-needed feeling (and not always common in some places with excessive corseting) to feel at home , because Tula could well be the living room of his or yours.
“We wanted to give it that vibe. For the dimensions, we always say that it is as if we invited our friends to lunch or dinner ”. And it's not just for space, simple and cozy , but, as always happens with everything, for the people: all those who have set foot in Tula they know that Clara is home.
Especially since she has found her site: the living room . “After the first year and a half we realized that many clients they came to the kitchen to say hello or for us to take notes . One of the two had to go out into the living room. I knew that I was not going to spend my whole life in the kitchen, but It was a very natural and positive jump , I had the need to find my natural habitat and to feel that recognition”.
Borja also compares Tula with a Parisian bistro with haute cuisine dishes but in the region of High Marina , on the edge of the Mediterranean. “In Jávea we live facing the sea but the town and its people look towards the field . That's why I started cook like my grandmother used to , an overwhelming woman who at the age of 8 was already a cook and fed 50 people a day. she is tula . That is why my roots are those game or sea and mountain dishes”.
Their Shiso leaf tacos with bacon, smoked eel and misonesa it is one of the immovables of his letter. Or the grilled oyster with grilled fennel cream and onion soup , for which Borja feels a weakness, since it represents the reviled oyster that is raised in the Mediterranean. They bring it from the Guadalquivir or the Ebro delta and the fennel grows wild next to the restaurant.
And that connection is noticeable in each dish : the raw materials with which they work have names and surnames. The vegetables and tubers are grown Maiques Y the fish is from Garreta's boat, his intimate friend, who fishes for him or brings him his fetish product: the big fish. “I am excited when we get milk of 50 or 60 kilos or dentex of 8 and 9 kilos, because they are difficult to obtain. That's why they know me in the fish market since we opened: at the beginning, I stayed with the fish that nobody wanted , because they are more difficult to clean and cook”.
Almost four years after his leap into the void, Borja and Clara assure that they had never dared to dream even of the Michelin star.
The best? In this house, with certainty, everything will remain as “before”. Tula also goes, and she will continue going, with ham croquettes and rice pudding.
Salty eclair of semi-cured bonito, smoked aubergine pesto and avocado from Tula
Address: Av. de la Llibertat, 36, 03730 Xàbia See map
Telephone: 966 47 17 45
Schedule: From Wednesday to Sunday, from 1:00 p.m. to 3:45 p.m. and from 8:30 p.m. to 10:30 p.m.
Half price: Between €40 and €60