The s'Agaró family that preserves a 1936 tavern of seafood cuisine facing the sea

S'AgaróIt was July 18, 1936, when Josep Ensesa Gubert inaugurated La Taverna del Mar on Sant Pol beach, in s’Agaró. It was a brilliant day, with a deep blue sky, when everything had to go well, because he had worked hard for the awaited day. By his side, the architect Francesc Folguera was happy with how that restaurant, which Josep Ensesa had named "tavern. Years earlier, he had not used the word hotel for the establishment with rooms in the s’Agaró urbanization; he called it Hostal La Gavina. As if he wanted discreet words for solemn establishments. The fact is that old Ensesa, as his friend and writer Josep Pla used to call him, went from joy to sadness in one day: the next day, July 19, the restaurant closed due to the start of the Civil War. Today, ninety years later, the Ensesa family, the four grandchildren, continues at the helm of their grandfather's tavern. They have been through thick and thin, but the present is full of novelties, such as the celebration menu they have devised to launch the summer, and which will be available all year round. It features seafood and Palamós prawn starters, and above all a fisherman's stew where the potatoes are as good as the fish, as it should be for a good stew.

Going to La Taverna del Mar is to understand the essence of the Costa Brava. It is located on Sant Pol de s’Agaró beach: “One of the most popular attractions on the Costa Brava; s’Agaró has such a deserved reputation that it is natural that a popular current has formed around it, made of mimetism and curiosity,” wrote Pla. Today the same phrases, as its biographer, Xavier Pla, highlights, are current. Sant Pol beach, with its colorful bathhouses, must be one of the most photographed on the entire coast. Those colors, those stripes, against the blue of the sea, and the white of La Taverna del Mar, are well captured. On the same beach, a section of the camí de ronda begins, the one that Josep Ensesa conditioned, which reaches Sa Conca beach, another marvel, with crystalline waters. A million people walk annually along the camí de ronda, with sections dotted with gazebos, rocks, pine trees, and above all murals and a sculpture in memory of Josep Ensesa Gubert, all paid for by the Ensesa family.The sea, in gulps through the windows

And now we enter La Taverna del Mar. Wooden beams (designed by the architect Rafael Masó) on the ceiling; white walls, with fragments of blue and white ceramic, black and white photographs showing the parents of the current owners, Josep Ensesa Montsalvatge (son of Ensesa Gubert) and Carme Viñas, and above all large semicircular windows through which the sea can be seen. The sea enters in gulps through the windows, and the eyes ride among the waves, like a hypnosis, which is what the sea does when contemplated. At the table, if you choose the celebration menu, the great novelty of the summer, and of the whole year, you will start with a fine clam with foam of celery, lemon and trout roe and a French oyster with red tuna tartare. They are two fresh starters, large in size, followed by an octopus, diced, on a cold Russian salad of Kennebec potato and then two dishes that create consensus: lightly spicy cocochas al pil-pil and a large Palamós prawn. The pil-pil of the cocochas is delicate, and makes you dip bread; the prawn is scalded with seawater, and then grilled for a moment, and served with extra virgin olive oil and salt.

With the starters made, the second course arrives: the fisherman's stew of rock fish and clams, which draws ovations. The cook Sergio Artica, alongside chefs Romain Fornell and Jose Pulido, explains that he learned to cook the great dishes of Catalan cuisine at the Sant Narcís school in Girona; he also says that he has since well mastered them with the eight years he has been working at La Taverna. The loin of rouget in the stew are sublime, but the potatoes, too. So much so, that many comment that if it were just potato stew, it would already be very good.For dessert, a double portion, and one with a novelty. For La Taverna's ninetieth anniversary, the chefs have devised the Guixoloenc, a name and a dessert that no other restaurant or anyone else had thought of: it consists of traditional orelletes, i.e., bread dough enriched with spices, fried in extra virgin olive oil, with Bonet liqueur, known as Estomacal Bonet, a historic digestive liqueur from Sant Feliu de Guíxols. The orelleta arrives at the table whole, large, occupying the entire flat plate, and each person cuts off pieces to eat. The second dessert is a basil flan with lime and kaffir lime ice cream, which is like a coulant: when the spoon is inserted, the liquid caramel comes out, which is skillfully mixed with the ice cream. With the menu, the proposed pairing is with bubbles, with a magnum Torelló Brut Nature, from the Corpinnat Torelló winery. All this for a price that does not reach three digits: €98.

“Catalans know how to do things very well done”. It wasn't Josep Pla who said it, but Joan Font, president of the Catalan Academy of Gastronomy and Nutrition, who accompanied the four Ensesa brothers in the celebration of the ninety years of La Taverna del Mar. All that's left to say is: many more years!