Bar Pintxo (Pin-cho)

---

Perhaps my favorite day of work was today- wanna guess why it was my favorite? Probably because it was the first time I was cooking in a kitchen since I've been here. Not only that, but I was talking to someone who truly cared about food and how it was prepared and presented. I was only there for a few hours before they opened, helping Karl (who's name is deceiving for being Argentinian with above average English but a pretty confusing accent), Bar Pintxo's head chef, do prep for the day, doing simple things like cut eggplant, shred lettuce, etc. but I can't describe how refreshing it was. Ally, the restaurant's general manager (who also has an amazing Scottish accent), was there as well giving me a fairly in depth run-down of the tapas bar's approach to it's food and customer service which I must say I think I identify with personally more than any other food style I've worked with. The idea of smaller portions so to taste everything, spending long, drawn out meals with whoever you're dining with, and being able to gain some kind of relationship with your server who is hypothetically knowledgeable enough to suggest your perfect wine. I've eaten tapas food and been to tapas bars before, but I think I may have fallen in love with Spanish food today after talking to Ally and Karl. I was supposed to have decided whether I wanted to pursue my career in cooking or continue onto grad school after SU this summer, but I think the closest decision I've made to anything pertaining to life after graduation is that it's quite tempting to just pick up and move to Spain, working in some little tapas place for a year. Perhaps not the most logical or realistic goal- but I didn't realize how easy it is to get a work visa in Europe within the year after you graduate till I got here... so if I graduate and have no idea still what I want to do, I'm gonna take a little siesta and go explore Europe.

After work I had to go to our weekly "class" for EUSA (basically the biggest waste of an hour of my life), then i went back to Bar Pintxo with a few friends for a glass of wine and to just hang out per Ally's request earlier in the day. When we got there Ally sat us and brought us the wine menu to which I replied: "Help?!". He brought us all testers of wine he thought we'd enjoy, red for me, white for everyone else. Basically it was the most delicious wine ever. After a "eeny-meeny-miny-mo" type choosing, I selected my wine and was to just soak up the amazing atmosphere the bar gives off. Everything is candlelit, the walls adorned with old and interesting looking wine bottles from Spain and other areas of the world protected behind big slabs of glass. After sitting enjoying our wine and talking, one of the servers brought us over a cheese plate with an assortment of uh-mazing Spanish cheeses compliments of Ally and Karl. Oooooh how Bar Pintxo will always hold a little part of my heart within my Irish experience forever 😊

---

Photos

Bar Pintxo
pronounced "Pin-cho"

Deeelish
Although can't say I can remember, or even come close to pronouncing the name

Their bathroom
yeah... it's a thrown. The Porterhouse tapas bars are pretty much the coolest decorated places ever.