Angelita's Cheese Selection
bistro What is it wine bar , enoteca that is tapas bar , tapas bar that is cocktail bar . Far from being diluted in its definition, the Villalon brothers They have managed to establish a proposal based on the product and in which the customer also counts.
David and Mario Villalón, sommelier and mixologist, They took charge of this bistro, wine bar and cocktail bar in 2017 after working in the restaurant that their father ran in Madrid Salamanca district of Madrid: The Father . They named their project after their mother, little angel , which it shares with the previous the family's organic garden in Zamora . From there come the vegetable ingredients that are part of the evolved traditional recipe book that comes out of the restaurant's kitchen.
This tells me who has received me in the room as soon as I sit at the table . The history of the restaurant is part of the experience as well as the possibility of trying more than 110 references of wines by the glass (five hundred per bottle). cocktails not . That door opens only at dusk in a sort of speakeasy which they call ' gastrococktails ’ and that he hides in the basement of the premises. Another day.
I count seventeen shirts, five ties and nine jackets. The average age is 40 years. I am the only woman in the room. Okay, me and Angels Barceló , which of course draws much less attention than this girl who has ordered a table for one, takes photos of the space and turns the menu over.
I hesitate between Cheeseboard wave vegetable stew with dried fruit velouté and topinambur cream that a waiter, crouched next to me, offers me as a suggestion. Their cheese cart is legend, and since doubt only offends me, I leave Solomonic decisions and I order the two dishes with three pairing steps.
relive the scene lucia and sex in which loneliness is measured in portions : there is no paella for one, who comes up with it. For two, always. Paella wins, always wins. But not here. I customize the cheese board (half table with seven options) so you can try more. They offer me thirds of a glass of wine so you can walk out. They let me exist in Angelita Madrid. I win.
Cocktails and cheese at Angelita
On the table they place an inverse tripod of dubious purpose until they place an olive wood board on it sprinkled with cheese slices . Provided by the cheese farm , that milky temple, the cheeses are presented on an altar and I am there to pay homage to them.
I kneel before a The Creamy Pear -served in a coffee spoon-, a delicate Elvira Garcia made with goat milk and a sheep elur -pull, pull the earth- accompanied by Nuria , that she is not a woman -the third!- but a sparkling parellada , a natural wine that greets my palate wildly: it tastes of yeast, it is not filtered, it reminds me of a good cider. It completes the flavor of these first three softer cheeses. It is the piece that they lack and that I fit with each sip.
It is replaced by a Petit Chablis Julien Brocard . Less impressive, with some chardonnay, sweeter to accompany the Mahón cured for years, the goat and cow (Occelli, I think) parked in chestnut leaf that goes through my nose, a blue that I pass by and a delicious roquefort , balanced, in a perfect texture and temperature. The quince , the tomato jam and nuts they harbor their intensity in the mouth. It's impossible not pinch the sourdough bread from the workshop La Miguiña which has its own line in the reduced menu of the bistro.
Pop! The uncorking of the wines resounds in the premises. Pop! And the men smile and talk about cooking at low temperatures and Angels is still there and we coexist. Pop! And my last broth arrives, "It's my favorite wine, that's why I bring it to you" , and the confession of the waiter and the golden color of that Riesling -Selbach-Oster, 1997 - delicious in which I discover wood and honey and before which the stew that they have waited to serve me with patience has dared to confront.
candied artichokes -creamy, tasty-, topped with wild asparagus, baby carrots, chanterelles and broad beans that they have collected from their own garden, Angelita's, and that they have cooked until they are at their exact point -that tremulous al dente-. The velouté of nuts is very lactic for me , but the wine is still too good.
I ask for the account. Other pop . I say goodbye to Angelita and the waiters who stoop down to confess their weaknesses. I'm still standing.
Address: Calle de la Reina, 4. Madrid. See map
Telephone: [915 21 66 78](tel: 915 21 66 78)
Schedule: From Monday to Thursday, from 1:30 p.m. to 02:00 a.m. Monday for dinner only. Friday and Saturday, from 2:00 p.m. to 2:30 a.m. Cocktail bar from 5:00 p.m. Sundays closed.
Additional schedule information: Essential: get carried away by their suggestions of the day
Half price: Average price: €55