Grand Opening Party for Ixtapa Cantina & Pop Up Bar by Névé Ice in Bar Celona

Last December, I was invited by PR Rep, Dan Cox, to attend the Grand Opening Party for Ixtapa Cantina in Old Town Pasadena. Owner Jack Huang seems to be building a Pasadena restaurant empire because he also owns Bar Celona and Villa Sorriso and they're all on Colorado Boulevard. This was my first time visiting this space since I've never been to either Fred's Cantina or Moose McGillicuddy's, which were previous tenants.

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The restaurant is quite roomy and I could see it as a good event space, with a good size bar and plenty of stools and tables on either side of the bar. There's a main dining area across from the bar that extends towards the back. Towards the back, there's a raised floor that's sectioned off with additional seating. There's even an upstairs area with both a balcony and a second bar that allows you to check out what's happening on the ground floor.

Drinks and food were hosted by Ixtapa Cantina. At the beginning of the evening, the wait staff were serving appetizers, which included both beef and chicken taquitos, cheese quesadilla and ceviche on a tortilla chip.

Towards the back of the restaurant, a buffet was set up where you could sample some of the items on their menu, including their Birria (braised short rib) that were made into tacos, their Mole Chicken, Carnitas as well as a few other items.

Having eaten in Mexico more than once as well as some of LA's more "authentic" restaurants like La Casita Mexicana and Moles La Tia as well as street food like the stands at Breed Street (which are no longer there) and the Oaxacan Quesadilla Cart, I've definitely had my share of mind-blowing Mexican food. The food at Ixtapa Cantina is far from mind blowing, but based on what I tried that night, it was solid and well-prepared. As part of the evening, I was also invited along with some other guests to do a little mini crawl of Bar Celona and Villa Sorriso where we'd be able to sample more food and either cocktails or wines. I ended up just going to Bar Celona.

At Bar Celona, we were introduced to the concept of a Pop Up Bar by Michael Dozois, Co-Founder of Névé Luxury Ice Company. Basically, the idea is the same as a Pop Up Restaurant, where a bartender or bartenders would take over a bar for a night and make specialty cocktails. For Michael's purpose, these Pop Up Bars would be used to introduce specialty gourmet ice cubes made by his company that would be utilized for that evening's cocktails. You can actually read a little bit of literature below and check out the two different sizes they come in.

The thought behind these gourmet ice cubes is that they are designed so that they take up 50 percent of your glass. With it being a single cube in your glass as opposed to an ice scoop full of small ice cubes, the surface area is less. This means that there's less contact of the ice with the liquid, therefore allowing for less dilution (less melting/less water in your drink). A bonus is that since the cube is larger it will chill your cocktail for a longer period of time. You can read more details here and look below to see photos of Michael holding both ice cubes.

When it came to the cocktails, there were two to choose one. One was called the Mexican Firing Squad and some of the ingredients included lime, simple syrup and tequila. Unfortunately, I can't even decipher my own notes, so I couldn't read the name of the second drink, but it had muddled basil, lime and Tennesse Whiskey.

As for the food, Bar Celona served us two delicious tapas. On one plate, there were two different Bruschettas. One had sheep's milk cheese and the other had a mixture of three cheeses (cow, sheep and goat). Both topped with fig preserves.

The second tapas were granny smith apples wrapped with salt cured tuna, topped with marcona almonds, shallots, chives and also included sherry vinegar and extra virgin olive oil. I actually really enjoyed both dishes a lot.

Interestingly enough, I nursed my muddled basil drink for a little over an hour and it truly stayed pretty cold the whole time and the shrinkage of the ice was quite minimal.

Overall, it was a pleasant evening. I'm not often in Pasadena these days, so it was nice to check it out. It's actually been awhile and there a lot of new restaurants that I've never even seen before. Maybe, it's time to do some more culinary exploring of that part of town.

Ixtapa Cantina
119 East Colorado Boulevard
Pasadena, CA 91105
(626) 304-1000

Bar Celona Restaurant
46 E. Colorado Boulevard
Pasadena, CA 91105
(626) 405-1000

Neve Luxury Ice Company
(323) 343-1507
info@neveice.com




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Tour and Paella at La Espanola

If you love Spanish food and are living in the LA area, then a trip to La Espanola, one of only four Spanish cured meat producers in the United States should definitely be on your to do list. La Espanola is an unassuming white building on a small side street in Harbor City in the South Bay part of LA County. To some who may hesitate because of the drive, let me tell you, it's more than worth it. I found that out after I made arrangements for my dining group to visit one Sunday for both a tour and lunch, but first, let's learn a little La Espanola history.

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In 1982, La Espanola Meats was founded by Juana Gimeno Farone, a native from Spain and her husband, Frank Faraone. When the couple relocated to California, Juana was disappointed that the availability of Spanish cured meats was extremely limited to almost nonexistent. After a lot of effort, she managed to find a Spanish food purveyor in Harbor City. After the current owners decided to retire, Juana and her husband bought all the remaining inventory and decided to start their own company.

27 years later, La Espanola wears many hats. Not only do they import, distribute and sell, both retail and wholesale, Spanish foods, they also manufacture Spanish-style sausages and cured meats using traditional Spanish recipes. Along with cured meats, other products that La Espanola imports from Spain to re-sell here include olive oil, olives, canned foods, candy, paella pans and more. As for their plant, it has the approval of the US Department of Agriculture and has state-of-the-art equipment, including mixers, multiple curing rooms and ovens.

On the day of the our La Espanola visit, many of the group arrived early to check out the retail store and as luck would have it, the store was sampling quite a few of their products including cheeses, cured meats, white anchovies and olives. I have to say it was difficult to display restraint. The quality of the product really was evident in how good everything tasted. I enjoyed the spicing of the cured meats and I could have eaten two plates of the white anchovies.

Walking around the small store was like a treasure hunt. It was just amazing the variety of products they had for sale. The various meats, sausages and cheeses were a definite draw, but so were the wines and the olive oils. Also on the shelves, I found sardines, quince, both an asparagus mousse and piquillo pepper mousse and so much more.

Soon, it was time for the tour and it was led by Alex Motamedi, a family member and it started outside where he first told us La Espanola's history and we also got a chance to take a peek at the Paella that was going to served later in the afternoon.

After the talk, we put on our oh-so-fashionable hair nets and were walked into the inner sanctum of their plant. As an importer of cured meats from Spain, those meats arrive whole, are cut into larger pieces, sliced, put into a plastic wrap, vacuum sealed and are ready for sale.

The star attraction was really the sausages. First, Alex pointed out the various machines that go into the sausage making process from the grinder, the scale, the mixer and finally the sausage casing machine.

Then we took a peek into sausage nirvana where row after row of sausages hung. The temperature, humidity and airflow in these curing rooms are carefully monitored. For a moment, we just stood there in awe. It was hard not to want to run in, grab a few sausages (some of which were actually taller than my 5'1" height) and make a run for it. It was a beautiful sight of meaty-goodness.

Once the sausages have finished their curing process, they are taken out of the vaults to be cleaned and packaged. An interesting thing that Alex mentioned was regarding the white mold on the surface of the sausages. During this curing process, white mold grows on the outside while the moisture evaporates as the sausage dries; hence, you get a dry sausage. There's apparently nothing wrong with the mold and while La Espanola generally cleans it off before packaging the sausage, they do get requests for the mold to be kept on for those customers who want to ensure the sausage was actually cured on location.

It was definitely a fun and informative tour and I always love going behind the scenes of a food factory because it makes you so much more appreciative of the work that goes into what lands on your plate. After the tour, we walked over to the covered patio for lunch which started with a tapas plate of cured meats, cheeses and olives.

Soon it was paella time and it arrived in a large platter right in the middle of our table. This was definitely an epic serving of rice, sausages, mussels, shrimp and chicken. I wasn't even sure if we'd finish it, but I have to say we made a pretty good dent and along with espresso and Spanish cookies to end the meal, it was definitely an enjoyable afternoon spent at La Espanola.

A couple things I should mention in regards to the tour and the lunch. This was a private tour I had set up with Alex and at the time, he had mentioned that they were going to start limiting the number of factory tours. So if you want a private tour, he's the person to contact, but there's no guarantee that he'll say yes.

As for the paella, it's only available during the weekend and you need to make advance reservations for it. They only make enough paella for the number of reservations that come in. Even if you can't do the tour or try their paella, La Espanola is really the place to go for Spanish cured meats and imported foods, so I definitely encourage you to check it out.

Click here to see all the photos!

La Espanola Meats
25020 Doble Ave
Harbor City, CA 90710-3155
(310) 539-0455
www.laespanolameats.com





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