ROSES, SPAIN: RASPA & WINE

06.12.09
Every year, hundreds of food lovers who have been lucky enough to get a reservation at El Bulli, just outside the northeastern Catalan coastal town of Roses, check into the local Almadraba Park Hotel. So do thousands of vacationers without a precious table at Ferran Adrià’s legendary restaurant—people who just want to enjoy the Almadraba’s comfortable rooms, immense pool, stunning sea views, and excellent traditional dining room fare, which glorifies the best local raw materials and wines. Since late spring, there’s been an added attraction: The hotel bar has been renamed Raspa & Wine, outfitted with new furnishings, and given an irresistible new menu of, as we say in the States, “little plates.” (Raspa means “spine,” as in the bones of anchovies, which are sometimes deep-fried into exquisite little treats here.) Prices start around $5 (for olives or tapenade-like garum) and go up to about $22 for a generous portion of local clams; agreeable house wines are just $3 to $8 a glass. Croquettes of chicken or seafood, mushroom-laced pork sausage with sautéed mushrooms, fried fresh squid, imaginative combination plates of French and Spanish cheeses, and the hotel’s famous crema catalana ice cream are among the other treats.

Raspa & Wine Almadraba Park Hotel, Roses, Spain (972-256-550)

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