A Spanish Appetite: Two Great Spanish Restaurants
By Margit Bisztray, Food Critic

Even after 14 years in South Florida, my Spanish isn’t much better than what a kid can learn on Sesame Street. Pathetic, I know. But before we come down too hard on my language skills, let me tell you about two great Spanish restaurants. Because even if I don’t speak Spanish, I sure know how to eat it. And Spanish, if you keep up with dining trends, is leading the way these days. Spanish cuisine, like its wine, has been brought up to date with modern techniques that take old world flavors and recipes to a new level of excellence.

In Atlanta, I recently tried Cuerno in Midtown. First of all, in a word: sexy beast of a restaurant. Not the huge scrap metal bull at the entrance (though I love that), but velvet banquettes the color of wine you want to swill before swallowing, oversized lampshades with crystal chandeliers inside, twisted iron tables and brocade curtains. It’s masculine, but in a huggy kind of way.
When you sit down they bring you a “porron” which is a Catlan drinking vessel that looks like Aladdin’s lamp but with a spout, and the object is to pour it at increasing arm’s length from your mouth without spilling (“porron” your tongue, not your clothing, ha ha). Traditionally this is done with red wine, but I don’t need to explain to you why prosecco is a better option when you’re not wearing your peasant clothes.

To eat, the food is all based on tapas style, so share a lot. Share cod croquettes, deep fried pardon peppers, clams a la plancha, potato and onion tortilla, scallop tart, green salad with quince and Manchego….you can’t go wrong. It’s earthy, toasty and unfussy. On your way out, you’re supposed to rub the bull’s balls to keep them shiny. Hey, I’m just making sure you don’t look like a tourist.

Of all the unlikely places to find an authentic Spanish restaurant, an elevated shopping plaza in Islamorada is one of them. But Jose Palamino, an owner with Oscar Valenzuela from Equador, is from Spain, near the Basque country. Now Oscar will only go on and on about how “simple” the food is, how anyone could cook it, how it’s all in the ingredients, but if all those things were true there would be good food on every single highway on the planet and we know this is not true. Yes, they use great ingredients (as you walk in, you enter a market at the front of the restaurant, shelves lined with olive oils, teas, spices, preserves, meats and cheeses offering a hint as to what’s in the kitchen), but someone also knows what to do with them.

Must try among the hot tapas is the shrimp in garlic sauce, which arrives sizzling in a terracotta baking dish and is splendid, the baby octopus the “Galician way” and clams las pocholas, which also had scallops and is said to be Hemingway’s favorite dish at his bar in Pamplona. There are also temptations like a monkfish tapa, bison empanadillas and piquillo peppers with tuna. The only thing I didn’t like was the bread (the food deserved better than those lame Sysco “French style” breads) and the way too dense Key lime pie, which is baked locally but I didn’t like it. My best recommendation is to call ahead and order their paella (you must pre-order it) because it sounds outstanding: lobster head stock as the base, the dreamiest saffron available (Jose let me smell it and it’s unbelievable), calamari and “bomba rice” which is the premier paella rice. It sounds seriously memorable. Otherwise, make a detour at mile marker 80.9 on the right side heading north and you’ll improve the only kind of Spanish a diner really needs, a Spanish appetite.

NOTE: Margit Bisztray has been reviewing restaurants and writing about food for ten years. She has published three editions of The Complete Key West Dining Guide, and her work has appeared in such publications as Vogue, Gourmet, Islands and Metropolitan Home. To read more restaurant reviews, log your own personal opinions, rate your favorite restaurants and watch streaming video archives of these shows and other reviews, visit Margit's Top 5.