Tapas in Ann Arbor: Aventura is my foodie happy place

I recently discovered while having dinner with my husband at a new Spanish tapas restaurant in Ann Arbor why I consider myself a foodie.

It was close to the end of our meal during our second visit to Aventura, and I was describing all of the nuanced and complementary flavors that were occurring in all of the dishes we ordered, when I said to my husband, "This is why I love food. Because when it's done artfully and with passion, it is a heightened sensory experience. And as a writer, English teacher, and lover of words, nothing gets me more excited than to describe all these flavors and textures."

Since Aventura's opening a little over a year ago, my husband and I have dined there four times and not one of those four times has been disappointing. In fact, quite the opposite. Each time my love for this restaurant grows and grows. We were elated over the opening of a Spanish tapas bar in Ann Arbor since the closing of our favorite tapas place in Royal Oak, which had the best sangria of any place on the entire planet. Even Aventura's sangria, while good (it's more spicy and herbaceous than fruity), can't hold a candle to the sangria of our former favorite tapas place, appropriately enough called Sangria.

But what Aventura's sangria lacks, they more than make up for it in their food. While our former favorite tapas place had good food, when stacked up against Aventrua, it isn't even a fair fight. They have managed to create dishes that sound unusual enough to question the sanity of the chef, but not so much that you're not curious enough to try it. A perfect example of this is their dessert called Tarta Basura, which is described thusly:

pretzel crust, caramel, chocolate ganache, shoestring potato chips, buttered popcorn ice cream


We ordered this dessert in addition to TWO others when my husband and I took a friend to Aventura a couple weekends ago. The other two desserts were good (the dipping sauces that accompany the

Tarta Basura, Brown Butter Cake, and Churros

churros are out of this world:  espresso chocolate sauce, crème anglaise, salted caramel) but the Tarta Basura with its variety of textures and its perfect balance of salty and sweet was the star of our self-created dessert flight.

In addition to unusual food combinations, another superlative of Aventura is that I have felt bold enough to try dishes that include foods I normally despise because they handle food with such care and passion. The Brussels sprouts are charred just enough to bring out a lovely umami flavor without any of that mushy, sulfuric taste/texture combination so many of us are still traumatized from experiencing when our moms forced us to eat them as children. A weekly special during a recent visit included a roasted sweet potato dish with green onions, garlic, and feta cheese. Once again, I am not a fan of sweet potatoes, but I knew from my experience with their Brussels sprouts that if anyone could change my

Brussels sprouts and sweet potatoes: two things I normally hate are stellar at Aventura

mind about my distaste for them, Aventura could. And sure enough, I was right. Now I'm slightly upset that I ordered this dish since it was a special and can't go back and order it again. I told our server that they need to put that dish on the regular menu.

Speaking of servers, let's talk about them, shall we? They are, quite simply, some of the best, most knowledgeable servers you will ever encounter in a restaurant. Clearly they are asked to sample the dishes as part of their training and education because their enticing descriptions of the food comes from a place of sincerity and enthusiasm. It feels more like I'm having a conversation with another food enthusiast rather than the typical restaurant experience where the only time you talk to your server is to tell them what you want and to inform them when you need more of something. Because of that feeling of amiability and collegiality, you also can feel comfortable enough to tell them when something in a dish isn't working. I remember the second time I visited Aventura, our waiter was so personable that I felt compelled to tell him that I enjoyed my chorizo, kale, bean, and potato soup, but I would have liked it better if the kale had been in smaller pieces running throughout, rather than just in two big chunks. He thanked me for telling him and said, "We appreciate this kind of feedback."

Our most recent visit to Aventura was last Friday to celebrate some really good news I had received that day: I had just been selected as the winner of the most outstanding grad student in the English studies program at my university. My husband and I go to dinner every Friday as it is our date night and we had planned to go to a different restaurant, but when I received this good news and my husband said we should celebrate, I came home from work and said, "Well since we're celebrating ME, then I want to go to Aventura." And so we did.

Cheers!

Coqueta San Francisco & Bottega Napa Valley

My husband and I just returned from a trip to Northern California with some friends of ours and experienced two amazing meals while we were there, both at restaurants owned by Michael Chiarello.

Coqueta is a Spanish tapas restaurant located in San Francisco and Bottega is an upscale Italian eatery in Napa Valley.

While both meals were memorable, the service and food at Bottega were nothing short of amazing; it is a whole dining experience, not just a place for great food. The waitstaff are some of the most knowledgeable and attentive I have ever experienced. And the food? Indescribable. The ricotta

Enjoying our meal at Bottega. You MUST order the ricotta gnocchi!

gnocchi are little pillows of heaven, just as my friend described and has been talking about for the past three years since her first visit to Bottega. She worried that as much as she and her husband have been talking this place up for the past three years that it wouldn't live up to their near mythic descriptions. Turns out it was BETTER than they had described.

Our waiter at Bottega, Scotty, was one of the best waiters I have ever had at a restaurant. He didn't just wait on us, but entertained and educated us at the same time. It felt like we were having dinner with a really great friend who loved food rather than someone waiting on us at a restaurant. I even learned something new from him that night: if you're baking with chocolate and you can smell it, you've already lost a majority of the flavor since it is such a volatile ingredient. Which is why, when you order the chocolate lava cake at Bottega, it comes out to you wrapped in parchment paper, and the server makes a show of unwrapping it and wafting the chocolate scent right to your nose. It is quite a sight to behold.



I don't, however, want to leave out Coqueta from this conversation, which was also an unforgettable dining experience. One of the friends we were traveling with has two severe food allergies that make it almost impossible to eat out. However, the chef, manager, and waitstaff at

Tapas at Coqueta

Coqueta were extremely attentive and vigilant about making sure she would be safe eating there -- even providing her with a personalized menu that the chef went over and crossed out items that would not be safe for her to eat. I could go over every single thing we ordered and tell you how absolutely amazing they all were, but this would be really long blog post. Rather that describe every dish, I'll just say that if you're in Northern California and you're looking for a memorable dining experience, you can't go wrong with either one of these two options. Not only will the food impress and wow you, but you will be well taken care of. The staff at both of these restaurants are passionate about food and want to share that passion with their customers. You get the sense that the people working for Michael Chiarello are not working on fall-back careers. Food IS their career and that is refreshing to see.

In memory of tapas, sangria, and traditions with friends

Last night was supposed to be the evening of the week I was looking forward to most. My husband and I were getting together with friends at our favorite restaurant, a Spanish tapas place in Royal Oak called Sangria. But as we were walking toward the restaurant from the parking garage, our friend Joe texted my husband with two words: IT'S CLOSED!

We were only a block away when we got the text so I was really hoping he just meant it was closed for the day, not closed forever. But alas, as we arrived at the restaurant, we noticed as we looked through the windows that it was completely dark, lonely, empty and the door handles were zip-tied shut with a bundle of newspaper flyers.

To say I was devastated might sound melodramatic, but I really and truly was. It felt like the sad end of an era but without the closure. Sangria was more than a restaurant to me. It was that little nudge on the shoulder for the need to catch up with friends, even despite our busy schedules. It meant conviviality washed down in multiple glasses of a magical fruity wine concoction, and on Thursday night Flamenco nights, the liquid courage was a reminder for the need to live and try new things as the performers always tried to pull us up on stage, and succeeded on 3-4 occasions.

FLAMENCO

Finagled into flamenco

I don't know what will we do or where we will go to try to replicate that feeling of tradition and conviviality, but in the mean time, I just need some time to mourn and reminisce...

Ah memories...

All the tapas we will miss...

RIP Sangria :(

Tapas and Sangria: Our Recipe for Maintaining Friendships

About once a month my husband and I meet up with a couple of our friends at a tapas restaurant called Sangria* in Royal Oak, Michigan. This tradition happened by chance when we were visiting with a friend who we hadn't seen in a while and were planning on going to another restaurant that turned out to be closed. We ended up at Sangria and it's now my favorite local restaurant. Not only that, but prior to this first visit to Sangria, this is a friend who we barely saw once a year due to our busy schedules, but now that we have a special restaurant, we're making time to get together a few times a year to catch up and make sure we don't drift apart again.

Prior to my first visit to Sangria, I had never been to a tapas restaurant before, but now it's probably my favorite way of eating. I have never been fond of an over-sized meal, not just because the portion size does not accommodate my petite stomach, but also the fact that my mouth gets bored of the same flavor over and over again. Tapas is such a fun way to add variety into your meal. The nature of tapas is to sample a variety of small dishes rather than feasting on one large entree. Plus you have the added benefit of passing dishes around the table and sharing the experience with your friends rather than the solitary endeavor of eating just one, large-plated meal.

Now, if it were just the food, this would still be my favorite way to eat. But top that with a pitcher of the most delicious sangria you'll ever drink and you have a recipe for the perfect convivial evening with friends.

The last time we went to sangria, was a couple weeks ago on a Thursday night when we were pleasantly surprised to discover they have flamenco dancing. Just as we were getting ready to leave, the flamenco dancer pulled us up onto stage to teach us some of her moves.

Despite being hesitant to go up at first, once it was over and we went back to our table, we couldn't stop talking about how much fun it was.

So if you've never been to a tapas bar/restaurant and you have one nearby, all I can say is what are you waiting for? (Just be careful, when someone asks you what you did last night and you tell them you went to a tapas bar, many people's eyes will bulge in disbelief and say, "You went to a topless bar??!!" That's happened to me more than a couple times).


*Note: sadly, this restaurant has since closed.