NO LONGER IN BUSINESS
When he set off on this adventure, Alberto Ruiz knew that Guardaviñas would have both good quality seasonal products and an off-beat wine list beyond the dozen Crianzas usually found in most restaurants in the Rioja capital.
Barely two months have gone by since he opened his bistrot in the old quarter of Logroño but it seems that things are heading the right way. Despite having had to part recently with Víctor Taboada “Tabo”, a well-known chef who joined the project at the start and designed a great deal of the menu, Alberto says that César and Patricia, the couple who have taken the reins in the kitchen, have good ideas and a lot of confidence in the future.
Dishes mix classic recipes with creative touches and a nod to English traditional cuisine (yes, it does exist!) in plates like smoked eel and coleslaw (€16), a classic side dish for fatty products or Sunday Roast (€25) using the recipe of Alberto’s wife, who is English. Made with pork belly, it comes with a very British side dish of vegetables, potatoes and gravy.
Offal, a hip trend in Spanish cuisine right now, is an important part of the menu with dishes such as pig’s trotters croquettes (4pc/€6), peppered cod with organic veal’s snout (€15) or roasted sweetbread with spicy mojo picón sauce (€11), but for non-carnivore diners there are other options like a delicious Eringy mushroom carpaccio with shoots, grated cheese and chili (€9), pumpkin lasagna with Gorgonzola (€10) or bluefin tuna tataki (€15).
The wine list is a welcomed oasis in a city like Logroño, with a dearth of bars and restaurants offering off-beat selections from international and local small producers. Among its 150 wines there is an interesting list of artisan champagnes and names from Burgundy, Jura, Chile, Italy or even Georgia and Oregon. Domestic wines are mostly from Rioja, with small producers such as Abel Mendoza, Sierra del Toloño, Juan Carlos Sancha or Benjamín Romeo but Alberto hopes to improve it in the near future with sherries and other styles.
This wide offer, which includes twenty-odd wines by the glass, is possible because Alberto, who lived in London for five years, co-manages with his wife La Cava de Pyrene , the Spanish offshoot of Les Caves de Pyrene, a British distributor specialized in artisan independent winemakers from around the world.
This intimate bistrot, decorated in wood and stone, does away with tablecloths but offers nice dinnerware and lovely soft cloth napkins, something rather old-fashioned these days but very much welcome. There is room to improve food presentation, but there are a couple of international touches which make Guardaviñas a good address to go when visiting Logroño: a free bottle of water on the table and English-speaking staff who know their wines. Y.O.A.
