Three-hours on a high speed tram ride up the coast from Alicante brought us to the small, harbor town of Denia. With only 45,000 residents, exactly why Denia is overrun with great restaurants and tapas bars is still a mystery to me but one we were willing to try to solve.
There are a few obvious indicators: the super yacht harbor is a big draw, the ferries that travel to Ibiza, Mallorca and Menorca keep things busy around the marina and there are plenty of fishing outfits to keep the restaurants stocked with great seafood from the Longa fish market in late afternoon. But on a per capita basis, Denia must have more than their fair share of excellent eateries, so we expected much from this day trip.
Top on any list would be Quique Dacosta’s eponymous restaurant known as the successor to Ferran Adria’s el Bulli, but we were not there to experience Quique’s skills just yet. Without a fair amount of pre-planning, it’s not the sort of establishment that takes walk-ins, so we were onto other equally tasty adventures in town.
To justify a three-hour lunch, a short walk seemed to be in order and Denia is not a big place. But like most coastal towns of any size, it has its requisite castle. It’s not as grand as the Castillo de Santa Barbara in Alicante, but the rustic, undeveloped grounds had a very authentic vibe. You could feel history underfoot as you hiked around areas long overgrown with forested trees and other areas sporting archaeological digs revealing stone mosaics from years past.
It was the narrow back streets, away from the tourist harbor front, that offered the most local color and flavor like calle Loreto, a street whose singular purpose is to provide bar after bar of excellent tapas. For our mid-day meal, we had our tastebuds set on the tiny, 20-seat el baret de miguel ruiz followed by some gambas on the waterfront at El Marino Puerto. But we soon discovered that even on a slow midweek day in November, a seat at certain casual restaurants is no guarantee. el baret was long since filled with “confirmed” reservations and El Marino had decided to uncharacteristically close for the month.
Luckily, I had one other option up my sleeve: a small, smart-looking restaurant called Las Bairetas.
Our waiter, Hector Tariv, was gracious and well-informed enough about the dishes that I think he spends spare time in the kitchen with the chef, Rafa Margos.
We enjoyed four nicely prepared appetizers before Hector arrived with the main event: a rich paella of sepia (cuttlefish) and fresh vegetables. Later, we discovered that chef Margos’ family business is the largest restaurant in Valencia that is exclusively dedicated to paella, so it helped explain why this particular example of local paella was so yummy.
With perfect afternoon lighting at the end of the meal, it seemed like a good time to test my portrait skills. Chef Margos willingly obliged me and struck a classic Spanish pose that alone was worth the shot. Hector was just proud to be considered and took in all in great sport. And Jorge, as always, accommodated my need for a staging model.
Las Bairetas did a fine job of representing the culinary skills of Denia and we’d recommend it without reservation (which fortunately we did not need). but I’m still curious enough about the ones we missed to go back once I’ve mastered enough language skills to phone for reservations in advance.
