One day wandering around the Gothic quarter in Barcelona, we spotted a place we were looking for by completely chance. Sagardi, a Basque restaurant based on the typical cider tavern. The origin is the farmhouses in the Basque country, where visitors went to try and buy the new cider, to counter the alcohol effect they serve simple local food. Later on cider houses opened their business and following the example they started to serve pintxos.
The place
The place sells excellent cider and to eat an amazing pintxo bar with more than 80 different options, all of them at the same price (2 Euros) and served in a toothpick, and when you ask for the bill the waiter counts how many toothpicks do you have, pretty simple. 12 locations in Spain (6 in Barcelona, 2 in Valencia, 1 in Zaragoza, 2 in Madrid, and 1 in Andorra), and 1 place in Buenos Aires Argentina.
Pintxo Bar
The food was amazing, I ate at least 12 pintxos, including iberico ham, tortilla, goat cheese, txistorra, blue camembert, shrimp croquettes, and mushroom croquettes. The food was so good I could have been eating all day.
Pintxos
More pintxos...
... And more pintxos
If you’re in any of these places don’t hesitate to stop in Sagardi you are going to love it.
The cutest photographer
Cider reminds me the Seinfeld episode “The Race” where Jerry is dating a woman named Lois.
Jerry: Elaine, only one other person in the world knows what I am about to tell you and that's George. When we were in the ninth grade they had us all line up at one end of the school yard for this big race to see who was going to represent the school in this track meet.
Elaine: Uh uh
Jerry: I was the last one on the end. George was next to me. And Mr. Bevilacqua, the gym…
Elaine: What's that?
Jerry: Mr. Bevilacqua, the gym teacher.
Elaine: Oh, of course.
Jerry: He was down at the other end. So he yells out, "Ready, On your mark, Get set" and I was so keyed up I just took off. By the time he said go I was ten yards ahead of everybody.
Elaine: No.
George: I looked up. I couldn't believe it.
Jerry: By the time the race was over I had won. I was shocked nobody had noticed the head start.
Elaine: Really?
Jerry: And I had won by so much a myth began to grow about my speed. Only Duncan suspected something was a miss. He's hated me ever since. Now he's back.
Elaine: Well what happened when you raced him again?
Jerry: I never did. In four years of high school I would never race anyone again. Not even to the end of the block to catch a bus. And so the legend grew. Everyone wanted me to race. They begged me. The track coach called my parents pleading. Telling them it was a sin to waste my god given talent. But I answered him in the same way I answered everyone. I chose not to run.
Elaine: So now Duncan is back?
Jerry: He's back. And I knew he would be someday. Man that's some tart cider!
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