By chance, we happened to see a poster the other week for Bar Rocio Tapas Day, which was in five days. Now, this is a bar we had driven past many times over the years, even when we lived in Hondon, and we were going to or from the Amber Lodge kennels.
Anyway, we decided to visit to see what the place was like and also because it was a tapas trail type of event.
What The Poster Said.
Basically, they opened in the morning and served various tapas, then closed for a short while and reopened in the afternoon for paella and beers. Sounds straightforward!
Times
10am until 13.00
A tapa and a quinto beer for €2.50
Or 6 tapas and beers for €14.00
They are then closed for half an hour as they are offering from 13.30 until 16.00 paella and the quinto for 2.50.
On The Day
We had to pop across to El Raso early door, so set of from home at 9ish to go to El Raso. We were back on the road by 9.40, popped into Consume in Quesada as we wanted to see when the Chinese there was due to reopen, but the builders were still working and there was no notification or posters anywhere.
Soph got the few bits she needed from the supermarket, and we headed off back on the AP7, coming off at the Catral junction, then heading out on the CV904 towards El Realengo on the Crevillente road.
So, we got there at 10.25am, there were 6 or 7 people sat outside, the car park had 12 vehicles parked up and as I went inside there were another 10 or so people in there.
I went to the bar, stood there patiently, while the young girl was emptying the dishwasher tray and stacking glasses on the shelf. Stood a little longer while she then did the next batch of glasses, still aware I was there and still made no eye contact.
I subtly cleared my throat, and after all those very urgent ( not ) glasses had been put on the shelf, she called out for someone to come and serve me. This is where it gets funny.
I asked in my best Spanish for two beers with tapas, pointed to the sign posted next to the bar, and in return, I got a flurry of rapido Spanish back at me. I had no concept of what she was saying until I heard the word ‘ ONCE’, meaning 11 a.m.
So this woman stood behind the bar, next to the poster advertising this event starts at 10am, is telling me it is now 11 am…. Only in Spain, huh?
I mean, it’s not like Taylor Swift was due on stage and her jet was running late, this was a bar with seven staff at least, who were going to be serving tapa and a drink…..
And So
I ordered a cafe con leche and a Coke for Soph, to site with outdoors until the event actually started. By 11 there were several more people arrived and eventually the 4 guys serving at the makeshift bar, were up and running.
There were 4 members of a Spanish family on the next table, they ordered a Cubo ( bucket of 6 beers ) and they had those brought to their table, closely followed by 6 tapas. Well, as it’s pointless doing things by half, plus this was a cheaper option, I went and ordered a Cubo too, for myself.
The set-up was a little confusing, but basically, the guy at the far right of the bar you bought the tickets from then moved 24 inches to your left, where another guy took half of your ticket and took your order.
Seems straightforward enough, once you got the hang of things, but in the typical Spanish way, they had friends arrive and stood at the bar shaking hands, and embracing and the system kind of ground to a halt until they realised there were 6 more people trying to get served and these 6 were blocking the pathway to the tables under the awning. Even some of the Spanish were queuing in the wrong place!
As there were 6 different tapas listed on the board < oh and none of the guys spoke any English > I pointed to each one and asked for 1, thinking that was the straight forward way, to get one of each. What we actually got was 2 different tapas, and 3 of each. Hey ho, not to worry.
The table next to us ordered a second Cuba and they were well on their way.
The place became more and more busy and everyone arriving was Spanish. We even had 2 guys arrived on horse back, sat on the horses in the car park, having a beer and tapa.
I was finishing off my last beer when the next table was just starting their 3rd bucket of beers, and they had brought them different tapas out, including morcilla, which I do like. I went back to the bar, and saw they had written another 6 tapa dishes onto the notice board, so as tempted as I was to order another Cuba, I bit the bullet and ordered a beer for me with the morcilla and a Tinto de Verano for Soph and a lomo tapa for her. I finished off with a chicken tapa. just to check it out, of course!
When we were leaving there were only 4 tables empty outside, there was a nice buzz to the place. The good thing was we were the only English voices there, but quite a few of the locals spoke and said hello to us, so we were made to feel welcome.
Another thing I liked was you could just have a tapa without a drink for €1.50
Would We Return
Hell yes, we would. This is a traditional, down-to-earth Spanish bar. Every time when we have driven past, the car park has been busy, so they must do a good menu del dia.
Their actual address is:
Bar ROCIO, Vereda de Orihuela( bar Rocío) n1, 03330 Crevillent, Alicante but on Google maps it is easy to find.
Strange they have zero social media, but then again in the usual Spanish way, if you know you know and maybe they aren’t that bothered about attracting us Ex pats to visit, who knows?
