Travel to Spain right here at Bravas in Sonoma County

When it comes to having adventures horse riding around semi-arid climates and being a do-gooder, I’ve always preferred the idea of Spain’s Don Quixote to our Clint Eastwood’s “Man With No Name.” While both seek justice, chasing windmills to make a point seems more benign and amusing than shooting up the community. Spain has been a nuanced and mysterious place for centuries. Recently though, few international cuisines have ridden into Sonoma’s County’s food town as subtly and quietly as has Spain’s. We haven’t had the opportunity to say, “Let’s go out for Spanish tonight, Dear” but now we do, and “small plates” (tapas) can be found in about every establishment in the county. Have you noticed it, too? The addition of Bravas Bar de Tapas in Healdsburg and the exotic Animo in The Springs are the trailblazers.

The Spanish influence

Here, let’s consider the Spanish cuisine scene for a moment and take a ride up to Bravas. Spain’s food and wine culture is going to have an ever increasing influence on our Sonoman lifestyle as our natural environment dries up. Our agricultural forces would do well to look out for the Spanish peppers and flavors and get them in the ground. Our viticultural scene was started evolving towards the Iberian wines. Sonoma’s Tempranillo plantings have increased with five producers now. I recently attended a seminar on Spanish sparkling wines, Cava, at the San Francisco Wine School. There, the brilliant proprietor David Glancy, MS, pronounced that the Cava varieties will do exceedingly well in Sonoma. “Of the main three, Macabeo, Perellada and Xarel-lo, it is the Xarel-lo that is promising because you have a variety that produces great acidity as well as gorgeous fruit tones in very hot climates. That’s the one to look for in the North Coast,” David opined.

Cava is always a “best value” for sparkling wine - but now it seems like there are two or thre choices on the shelf instead of just one. Over the coming year there will be dramatic changes to the labeling of Cava to denote their all organic status (as a country!), the bottle age, the vine age - all the quality factors. It’s a pretty incredible work of collaborative appellation marketing. Sonoma County Winegrowers should take note. Imagine if every product labeled “Sonoma County” or one of the sub appellation had to be certified organic! Spain has IT going on right now.

The Original: Why we love Bravas

Located just north of Healdsburg’s plaza is a large old house at 420 Center Street. There, you’ll find a small sign tucked into the roses out front that says “Bravas.” This is the home of the wonderful new restaurant, Bravas Bar de Tapas. On a recent Saturday night we took a ride into town to check it out. Here’s what we found.

Bright orange is the decor - Giant’s jerseys would fit right in. The old home’s rooms have been transformed into upscale dining areas, including a lovely backyard lit by overhead lights, warmers nearby for comfort and romantic candles everywhere. It is as inviting a restaurant as you’ll find - Bravas feels like walking into a friend’s house for an intimate yet lively dinner party.

I’ve always preferred a whole bunch of small tastes of foods to the typical individual megameal portions of most American styled restaurants. When my parents took us kids out, we were always spinning lazy-Susan’s at Chinese restaurants, pulling slices off of shared pizzas or scooping heaps of Minestrone from the family-sized bowl at the Union Hotel in Occidental.

Tapas just suits me, even though it is new around here. At Bravas, the scene is all about sharing. Don’t pull your reigns back at trying the homemade Boquerones. The sardines arrive covering a small bowl of pickled vegetables and served with crispy toast. The core of salted fish, brightly acidic vegetables and crunch is an exciting start for the meal ahead. Hopefully our local sardine run can recover from the collapse of the fishery so more of us can enjoy them.

There are ham & cheese plates, olive bowls, Marcona almond nibblers, offerings of all types for appetizers and then the fun really begins with Bocadillos - little sandwiches. The lamb slider is a fabulously rich couple ounces of meat covered with caramelized onions, Manchego cheese, and served with two pastes to dip into, one a garlic aioli, the other a roasted pepper sauce. It is perfect. We skipped the Raciones (larger plates) and paella and opted to keep the tapas coming. A steaming bowl of clams cooked in Cava seemed to fit the mood and they were sumptuous, swimming in a garlic wine sauce with a touch of pepper heat and buttered bread.

We finished our meal off with a jaw dropping Spanish chocolate mouse drizzled with tangerine oil and crispy wafers along with a glass of Pedro Ximenes (PX) sherry. Bravas is a spectacular evening’s fun, marred only by the inane ‘80s pop drivel coming out of the loudspeakers.

If you aren’t familiar with PX (Pedro Ximinez is the name of the variety!) but are curious, I’d strongly recommend a visit to Bravas Tapas. This singular establishment features two of these rarely seen and exotic Spanish aperitifs. PX is the taste of the glaring sun on grapes, of dry heat on a dusty ground, of vineyard workers toiling in the warmth of the Spanish countryside. You can’t have a sip and not feel the Spanish sun warming your bones. PX has been very hard to find in Sonoma County. My local Pedro Ximinez source for years has been the little Glen Ellen Market.

Spain is suddenly galloping into view. A Spanish Cava for the holidays, PX for an after dinner sipper, and if you are looking for a romantic and fun new culinary adventure, a trip to Bravas Bar de Tapas should be included on your own dusty trail in the coming months.