At home, when I say "I love tapas," people always enthusiastically nod their heads in agreement. Who doesn't love tapas! But over the years, I've found that we're likely talking about two different ideas of tapas. In the U.S., of course, the word "tapas" has largely been unhinged from its Spanish roots to become simply a synonym for "small plates," which of course has become the dominant form of popular dining.
But real tapas is more than just small plates. In Spain, you rarely stop at one spot for an entire evening of tapas. Spain has the highest number of bars per capita in the world, and most Spanish cities boast a critical mass of bars with lots of different house specialties to try. The tradition of the tapeo (or tapas "bar crawl") is about crowds, movement and being out and about as part of a group in flowing public spaces. It's about eating standing up - being so casual that you often just toss your toothpicks and napkins on the ground when you're finished.
The drinks are also very important. It's often the opposite of usual pairings, where the wine or beer is meant to accompany the food. In Spain, tapas is often the accompaniment to the drink.
This experience is difficult to replicate back home, as Turney and Safran found when they traveled throughout Spain's Andalusia region during a research trip for their newly opened restaurant, which replaces Bindi, their recently shuttered Indian BYO. In towns like Seville, Turney said, she was taken by the raucous tapas scene.
"People were eating standing up and the crowd was spilling outside, and we were like, 'Why doesn't this work at home?' " Turney said. "But it just doesn't work. People don't want to stand in a crowded space. It's just not in our culture. When you're in Spain, you get caught up in the whole 'we're on vacation' thing. But even we wouldn't want to do it at home."
