Have you ever had trouble remembering what you did last night? Our memory loss was not due to over imbibing, but it’s fair to say we might have overindulged just a tiny bit. We spent a really long evening at Albert Adria’s tapas restaurant, Tickets, in Barcelona. It may take six months planning to reserve a table at Tickets but we were last minute additions, compliments of a phone call from María José San Román to Albert on our behalf.
Albert, co-conspirator with brother Ferran, participated in one of the culinary world’s all-time greatest hits, the restaurant El Bulli. For all his well-earned accolades, Albert’s a very down-to-earth guy. Gracious, funny, passionate. I can’t wait to transcribe the interview for a Zester Daily story.
We didn’t quite know what to expect but we knew it would be an experience we would not soon forget. It’s an understatement to call it dinner, more like a performance art piece where all your senses are satiated, not just sight and sound. As Jorge said, everything was not quite as it seemed.
Each dish was an adventure that brought with it a detailed explanation from the wait staff about what it was and how to eat it. We may have needed the explanations, but we didn’t need to be told it was all delicious and crazy food fun.
We didn’t keep count but by the time we moved to a small room reserved for special guests to enjoy desserts and after dinner drinks, we were entranced. The ceiling in this fantasy was dripping with huge white berry blossoms, strawberries and cherries; the chairs and tables were Alice-in-Wonderland sized and one wall was filled with video screens playing crazy flicks and cartoons from the 70’s and 80’s. The Pink Panther, Willy Wonka and the Chocolate Factory, Star Wars, the Flintstones – just a handful of Albert’s odd mix. If you didn’t already know that Albert’s other passion is film, you couldn’t miss it here.
How would we know the wine cork was made of a crunchy chocolate confection and meant to be popped into our mouths? Why was our coffee cup cut in half and how was it still able to hold the chocolate mousse and cream on a perfectly cut angle until we took a spoonful? My pictures simply don’t do it justice and the tale is not complete without Albert’s own thoughts, but I’ll save that for my interview story. At least, I was happy to find a place that embodies my own favorite motto: food is fun. And Tickets is nothing if not that! 
