Valentine’s Day Paella

February 14th, one of the few holidays I pay attention. I have been looking forward to today since I made reservations last week at El Olivo, some say it is Oaxaca’s premier Mediterranean style restaurant, for a paella dinner. We felt lucky as we were seated on the second floor terrace about 15 minutes before sunset. Unfortunately, sunset lacked vivid colors due to the semi-dark gray clouds. Still it was a great scene for a beginning to our evening.

We were given the choice of paella for one, or the paella for two. We chose the paella for two. The meal started with a bowl of complimentary tasty marinated green olives. We ordered a bottle of La Cetto Baja Mexico Petite Syrah and it also was quite good. Sorry to say, but that was almost it for the good news. The bread that was brought to the table was dry and crusty, all the way though. With the purchase of a bottle of wine we were promised 2 tapas at no charge.  We did not receive the tapas until we were more than halfway through our meal. The paella was not artfully presented and that easily could have been forgiven. As is my habit, I forgot to take a picture of the paella before we disrupted the presentation.

The rice and the peppers were flavorful. There was a woeful amount of seafood in the dish. Ordering a paella for two we were shocked to receive one scrawny shrimp, one clam, a chicken leg to share, and some things that might have been seafood but we were unsure of that. There were two mussels. The one chicken leg was not tough, unlike a big chunk of pork, the one shrimp and the bit of octopus; all of which were very difficult to chew due to their toughness.

Two different wait staff came to the table and inquired how the meal was. I told both that the food was horribly disappointing, both from the non paella content, and from the quality standpoint. I told the second person that I believed they needed a new chef. A bit later a third person came to the table. He made several excuses, but apologized and told me he would take 20% of the the part of the bill that was the charge for the paella.  I let the matter be at that point.

It was a puzzling Valentine’s Day dinner in a space that was comfortable and encouraging when we entered. Happily our night did not end there. We went to a small club we had frequented about six times previously. It has almost all outdoor seating, covered, and often has music. A picture of Casa del Elfo follows.

It is a favorite of ours because we never feel rushed or pressured as we sit in there space. I had noticed a gentleman previously who seemed to be the one orchestrating all that happened in the space. He would talk to staff, move tables and chairs around for customers, and greet an inordinate number of people who came to the club. Figuring he was the owner I introduced myself and aske if my presumption was true. Sure enough, Wilfred is the owner. Later in the evening he came to our table to meet Sheila. That is when we found he had moved from Denver CO a little over a year ago.

For those of you who do not know, I spent most of 1994 – 2004 in Denver before moving to Spokane in 2004. Wilfred and I had moved to Denver at nearly the same time, and had bought homes in the downtown area. Downtown in 1994 was just starting to explode with energy due to the construction of a downtown baseball stadium that changed the face of Denver. This definitely gave us something to talk about. I have become disenchanted with Denver’s growth, Wilfred is still a big fan. When we left del Elfo we walked home in the warm nighttime air through our favorite park Llano and savored the energy of kids and families surrounding us. I counted 20 food trucks in the park even though we only walked through half  the park.

So, after a promising start to the night at El Olivo, followed by the dinner letdown, the night ended on a high note.