Gastronomic Cocktails And Outrageous Octopus Paella Hit Palo Alto’s Macarena | Eater SF

"Owned by David Linares and Elizabeth Reviriego and debuting Friday, February 28 at 420 Ramona Street in Palo Alto, this new Spanish restaurant leans deep into traditional Spanish recipes and dishes. “We’re not going to change the recipes here,” Linares says. “We’re going to follow the real and traditional recipes from Spain, keep the very traditional flavors, and cook high-quality ingredients.” The opening is shadowed by a lawsuit filed by their former employer, Telefèric Barcelona, accusing the couple of stealing recipes and customer and client data; Linares and Reviriego deny this and issued a statement that reads in part: “Regarding the lawsuit filed by Teleferic Barcelona, we want to be clear: their claims are completely baseless. This is nothing more than an attempt to stifle healthy competition and distract from what truly matters—our commitment to delivering exceptional food and hospitality. Our recipes are entirely our own, and we stand by the originality and quality of our culinary creations.” The kitchen features Michelin-grade talent recruited from Spain: chef Toni Santanach, owner and chef of Els Pinxus in Barcelona who was part of the team at the restaurant Hofmann when it earned its Michelin star, and chef Sergio Box, whom Linares refers to as the “best paella man in Spain,” hailing from Jávea and running the Michelin-listed restaurant La Perla de Jávea. Signature dishes named by the team include cocotte de rabo de toro (slow-cooked oxtail with truffled mashed potatoes), rossejat de fideuà (a Valencian dish similar to paella but made with noodles), roasted calçot (roasted baby leeks with romesco and hollandaise), croquettes made with jamón ibérico, and a churro-shaped version of patatas bravas with a dippable brava sauce; there is also a roasted tomato salad featuring a creamy-tart ajo blanco sauce. Box will work on a rossejat de fideuà made with squid and shrimp from Monterey Bay, paellas incorporating jamón and octopus, and even a vegan paella version with seasonal vegetables. “Once you see the menu, you’ll realize that those dishes are — once you go to Spain — mostly all the restaurants that are traditional,” Linares says. “We’re not inventing, not creating something new, we’re just bringing the best of the tradition to the States.” Service elements include cart moments—a cheese selection and a tableside-carved jamón ibérico de bellota—and a beverage program led by director Cristian Hornos described as a “gastronomic cocktail menu,” with drinks explicitly inspired by Spanish dishes and flavors. Hornos, who grew up in Roses, Spain, and spent time working with chefs like Ferran and Albert Adrià and Martín Berasategui, brings touches of modernist cuisine to cocktails: what might be classically classified as a margarita becomes an experience incorporating a blue cheese syrup that’s folded into a hot foam that sits above the cooler, tequila-based drink below, the hot-cold mixture creating a unique riff; similarly, the “Unbloody Mary” is a Grana Padano fat-washed whiskey drink incorporating cherry tomatoes with kimchi, yet arrives tableside confoundingly clear and topped with a watermelon foam. Paired with an elegant dining room, the owners say they hope diners will judge the team “through what we do with our work, with our dishes, our ingredients — not with everything that is going on out there,” Linares says. “This has been our dream since day one.” The restaurant’s posted hours are: open from 11:30 a.m. to 9:30 p.m., 11:30 a.m. to 10:30 p.m. on Friday, 11 a.m. to 10:30 p.m. Saturday, and 11 a.m. to 9:30 p.m. on Sunday." - Dianne de Guzman