The pots of the Cortijo bar that feed a popular neighborhood in Tarragona
The establishment has been serving port workers and everyone who approaches it for almost fifty years
TarragonaWhat a great discovery. A bar for everyone: recognizable cuisine, popular prices, and a good atmosphere among the usual patrons and newcomers. Take note because if you go to Tarragona, it's a must-stop for a fork breakfast or lunch. Welcome to bar Cortijo.
We are in the Port neighborhood. In a small street, we discreetly find the bar. It has been operating for 48 years, and the Masegosa family is behind it. You enter, and your eyes go directly to the back of the place. There are the pots with everything they have prepared. You think it will be difficult to choose. But it doesn't end up being that way, because Santos will make it very easy for you. His parents opened the bar in 1978. The father renovated it, the mother, who was a very good cook, behind the stoves, and he and his brothers, doing everything. It was – and is – a bar to serve workers. Artisans, dockworkers, shipping companies, those who had worked the night shift and came for breakfast. In the neighborhood, in general. And so they continue, and it's added that thanks to social networks and Santos' love for natural wine, more people have found this gem.
At El Cortijo, they try to make everything possible in-house. “We defend the authenticity of traditional cuisine. Now you can eat the same thing in Madrid, New York, or Barcelona. We have a globalized palate”, explains Santos, who describes how he started presenting everything directly in casseroles. The display case broke, and he decided to serve it directly exposed in its containers. It was a success. Santos has a knack for simplifying life. He makes direct, unpretentious cuisine. He presents it as it comes out, and believe me: all together it looks great. And then, to make it easy, he has two plate sizes. The small ones cost 8 euros and the large ones, 12. Do you want a plate with a bit of everything? No problem, they serve it as a mixed plate and it will still cost 12. What they call a potpourri.
”, says Santos. And we will also find peas with cuttlefish, sausage with beans, or the migas. Regarding this last dish, one day Santos' mother, originally from Granada, asked him “why don't you make them, you're rich?”. And Santos saw that his mother was right and that all the bread from Andreu's bakery that was left over should be used. Furthermore, he assures that with the migas everything goes well: fish, meat, fruit, fried peppers, sausage... “We cannot lose the tradition of the entire peninsula of using-up cuisine. Of the poor. When foreigners come, I explain it to them too”, he assures. You can also find coastal sardines with tomato sauce or fried eggs. And, if you go for Santa Tecla, small spine with snails. A very characteristic dish made from tuna bones that have been salted for a year and snails.
I saw how it was done before
Santos moves well in the kitchen and outside, where he gracefully serves a gentleman from the Basque Country. The poor man wanted to come to El Cortijo, thinking the train stopped at Tarragona station and, instead, it stopped at Camp de Tarragona. It hasn't been a problem for this gentleman, who has arranged it with a taxi and is enjoying a champion's lunch. He washes it down with a Garnacha that Santos recommended, a great defender of natural wines. “I maintain that in the hospitality industry, you must know where all products come from and where they are made. Twenty years ago, we met a gentleman who they said made natural wine. And I saw that they were wines with less intervention. Our home-style food pairs very well with these wines. As Mediterraneans, we have it in our DNA from thousands of years ago. I want this for nature. If I want it for myself, I want it for my clientele,” says Santos, who assures that his father summarized it with “wine as it used to be made.” They make vinegar from what's left over, and they also make limoncello, walnut wine, or a dessert called Charlotte, to use up the lemons from the limoncello. Behind the bar, his son, the third generation, is already lending a hand. Until recently, Santos's brother, Lluís, was also there. But unfortunately, he passed away a few months ago. “He was like a Mick Jagger of the dining room,” he explains. One of those who, as soon as you entered the door, he had you pegged. They miss him a lot, but despite everything, El Cortijo's casseroles continue to simmer and feed everyone, no matter where they come from.