Back in December I was working from home the week between Christmas and New Years. I was out and about in Brookline on one of those days and I noticed a new restaurant was moving into the space formerly occupied by American Craft on Beacon Street in Washington Square in Brookline. I was driving and couldn't see what exactly was going in there, but a few days later, a friend who lives in the neighborhood told me it was going to be a tapas place.
That new tapas place is called Barcelona Wine Bar and it's actually part of a chain. They have seven other locations.
Wanting to try it out but unsure when I'd get back over to Washington Square, my friend and I decided to go there for Valentine's Day. Since graduating college seven years ago (yikes!) I've had dinner with the same college friend every single Thursday night. When we discovered Valentine's fell on a Thursday this year, we decided to do it up right.
It was freezing on V-day and though it wasn't currently in use, it was clear Barcelona Wine Bar plans to make use of the great patio space (seen here covered in snow).
The door to the restaurant actually juts out into the sidewalk.
Each girl that walked through the door was handed a long stem red rose by the hostess. Such a nice touch!
We took our roses to our table where they served as an extra special piece of decor for the evening.
When you enter the restaurant, across from the hostess stand is a long wooden table that displays flowers, eggs, stacks of cook books, and all kinds of fresh produce.
The bar area, which has its own room, was completely packed. There is a round bar in the center of the space and then booths along both walls.
The wall separating the bar from the main dining room is an incredibly cool structure that looks like it could hold wine bottles.
The center dining room is open to the kitchen which has a few varieties of jamon serrano hanging from the ceiling.
We were seated in the far right section of the dining room, which is behind another divider wall. We were most definitely in the quietest section of the restaurant.
We were greeted by a very friendly waiter who did not seem at all frazzled by the fact that every single table in the restaurant was full. He handed us the enormous menus and recommended the number of tapas we should order per person.
Before we could talk tapas, we had to order drinks. We went with the traditional red sangria which was delicious. From this one pitcher we each had four full glasses.
While we were deciding, we were delivered a silver pail of warm, doughy bread and a small plate of olive oil.
We placed an order for six tapas, that's three a piece. The first to arrive was the patatas bravas (brave potatoes). When I lived in Spain, patatas bravas was a staple for me, as it's one of the only tapas dishes that doesn't have meat.
This version had great kick and we devoured it seconds after it hit the table.
The spinach-chickpea cazuela was recommended by our waiter but we found the flavor too one note.
The gnocchi with truffles was a small portion, but we were glad because it was so rich! The cream sauce and shaved truffles were the epitome of decadence.
The chorizo and figs (please forgive the crappy photo, the mood lighting made it quite difficult to capture this particular dish) were both sweet and spicy with the sausage offering a smoky quality and the figs adding sugar.
Though this looks like it could be a dessert, it is actually the butternut squash! It had a swirl of honey on the plate and each bite had a great crunch from the nuts sprinkled on top.
Lastly, my Valentine date ordered the mussels al diablo which came with two pieces of toasted bread on top. After she had eaten all of her mussels, I took a piece of bread and tasted the sauce which was quite yummy.
Once the dinner portion of the evening was over, we were ready for dessert. I had seen a photo on Barcelona Wine Bar's Facebook page earlier that day advertising a molten chocolate cake. Obviously that needed to happen.
The actual name of the dessert is warm chocolate hazelnut indulgence which is served over a zig zag of raspberry sauce and topped with an enormous scoop of coconut chip ice cream.
This dessert was out of this word. I would come back just to eat this. The cake was moist on the outside and piping hot with fudge on the inside. The raspberry sauce added a bit of tartness to cut the chocolate. The ice cream alone tasted like an Almond Joy candy bar, but combined with the cake it was nirvana.
We should have stopped there, but we couldn't resist the churros. We were so excited to indulge in the cinnamon sugar, fried goodness but when we each took our first bite our mouths twisted in disgust. The churros tasted burnt. We hypothesized that the oil the churros were being fried in had burned or was being over used due to the volume of orders being placed for this dish. Even the chocolate dipping sauced tasted funky.
Our waiter, who had been incredibly kind all night, noticed that we weren't really touching the churros. He came over to ask about this dish and we were honest, saying, "We wanted to love this and normally we love churros, but sadly, these taste really burnt and we can't enjoy them."
With zero hesitation he whisked the plate away. He returned and declared, "I have taken the churros off your bill. I am so sorry. Please accept this token for a free plate of your choosing on your next visit." Now that is customer service! I was really impressed that on such a busy night, our waiter and the manager still took the time to make the situation right and go the extra mile to ensure we'd come back.
Though Barcelona Wine Bar is a chain, it doesn't feel like one. It feels like a fantastic addition to a great neighborhood. The servers were attentive, the long stem red roses were such a special touch, the sangria was excellent and the food was top notch. Though some of our tapas were home runs and some were definitely strike outs, the delicious dishes were enough to keep us coming back - especially that chocolate cake!
Have you been to Barcelona Wine Bar yet? What did you think?
