Barrio

The first time Boyfriend and I went to Barrio was one of the times this past spring when I was in town for a job interview. On Tuesdays they have two-for-one tapas, and that plus a pitcher of their red sangria made for a pretty enjoyable dining experience. When we went back a couple weeks ago, however, the waitress gleefully informed us that they'd recently changed their menu. Things went downhill from there.

The sangria was the same, and not half bad at that--which is saying something, because Boyfriend and I are something of sangria connoisseurs.The two-for-one tapas Tuesday deal was the same, too. It was the tapas that had changed, and not in any kind of comprehensible way. Anyone who has spent any amount of time in Spain (as Boyfriend and I both have) is familiar with the traditional tapas dishes, and, as far as I'm concerned, it's those traditional dishes that draw Americans to tapas restaurants in the States; otherwise, you're just eating expensive appetizers. Yet, perplexingly, Barrio removed all the traditional dishes from the menu and replaced them with disappointing, not particularly tasty Americanized substitutes. The patatas bravas were replaced by patatas fritas...which is apparently fancy Barriospeak for "burnt French fries."  They also removed the delicious calamari dish from the menu and there was no good substitute for it. About the only addition to the menu that we enjoyed were stuffed tomatoes, but even those weren't much more than decent.

Well...not all change is for the better, I suppose. It's a nice little place to grab a seat outside and share a pitcher of sangria, though.