Sometimes I am walking around Logroño on a Friday or Saturday night and I spot them, the deer in the headlights. Except the deer are the foreign tourists and the headlights are the streets around Calle Laurel, where Logroño’s main concentration of pintxo bars are found.
They have arrived to try out the pintxos that Logroño is known for, but the scene on Calle Laurel can be a daunting one and they have just realised they have no idea how to get involved. What exactly is the protocol on how to eat pintxos like a local?
1 / Have one pintxo and one drink in each bar
The idea is not to settle into one bar for the night, but to have one pintxo and drink in each bar and then move to another. Some bars only sell one type of pintxo for this reason – they don’t expect guests to be sticking around for more.
When locals ir de pintxo (go out for pintxos) the acceptable number stops on their ruta de pintxo (pintxo route) is five or six bars. My record is seven, but I’m a greedy and a rule breaker.
It can be hard to pull yourself away when everything looks so good, but there are more tantalising treats around the corner. This is the local way to do things, and it also makes it easy to keep track of finances in a group….(we will talk about this one later).
2 / Choose your drinks wisely
In Logroño, it’s socially acceptable to drink one of three things when eating pintxos.
Whilst it would be rude not to sample La Rioja’s most famous export, the vino tinto (red wine), any wine is a passable choice. If you want a lighter vino and want to look like you really know your stuff ask for a clarete which, although it’s not technically the same, looks like a light rosado (rose wine).
Other than vino, beer or mosto are acceptable to drink on your ruta de pintxo.
Beers should only be drunk in the smallest serving, called a corto, or you are going to find yourself fading before you have visited your five bars. And besides, ir de pintxo is only the beginning of the night – the Spanish stay out late, and this is just the warm up.
Mosto is a sweet, non-alcoholic grape juice and it’s perfectly acceptable to select the non-alcoholic option. If feel like I need to balance out the vino tinto or want something refreshing to balance out the fried food, mosto it is! It looks (and tastes!) similar to concentrate apple juice and quite often comes served on ice and garnished with a slice of orange and an olive (strange, but it works!)
Sounds confusing? Remember: beer, mosto or wine and you’ll be fine. (Hey, I came up with that all by myself!)
3 / Start late
As if selecting drinks without making a social faux pas wasn’t enough, this is sometimes even harder for visitors to get their head around. In Spain we eat late.
Most pintxo bars don’t open until at least 8pm, but even waiting until 8.30pm to go out, means that you are coming back home just as the atmosphere is building up.
I usually go out between 9.30pm and 10pm, but after 10pm is when the atmosphere in Logroño is really alive. The following two hours are pintxo mayhem, then things die down and bars close around 12.30 – 1am.
4 /Go to the busy bars
I know the feeling. You turn around the corner into Calle Laurel and BAM. A crowd of people. You bypass that crowded bar and hope to find somewhere quieter.
Don’t do it!
The busy places are busy for a reason. The locals know something that you don’t. Be brave and fight the crowd.
5 / Try the Especialidad (Speciality)
Many bars in Logroño have one especialidad that they serve.
In some bars this is easy to figure out because they only do one type of pintxo. In others there may be a sign letting customers know the especialidad. If you are unsure, have a look what other people seem to be eating or ask “cual es la especialidad?” (what is the speciality).
Some bars cook their especialidad to order and have their other pintxos sitting on top of the bar, and you wouldn’t want to accidentally order the inferior pintxo, so check before you just point to the first pintxo you see.
6 / Be prepared to stand
Don’t go out for pintxos expecting to have a seat for the night. Period. So don’t wander around until you find a bar that has spare seats because you will go to bed hungry. Some bars have a few seats, others have none at all.
It often happens that the bars are so busy inside, I end up eating outside standing in the calle. Standing in the street with a vino tinto in one hand and a pintxo in the other is part of the fun.
7 / Do a ‘bote‘
The best way to organise finances whilst doing ir de pintxo is to do a bote.
This basically means you select a treasurer for the evening. Everyone puts in the same amount – 10 euros is good – and one of your party takes responsibility of the bote.
When it comes to pay up, this person in charge of the bote pays for everyone. In some of Logroño’s bars a pintxo and drink costs less than 2 euros, so doing a bote is easier that each person scraping the bottom of their pockets for small change.
8 / Don’t follow TripAdvisor recommendations
Logroño is not a city with a high number of tourists. Locals tend to not review places in their own town, and quite frankly, I am sure there are some bars in Logroño who don’t even know or care what TripAdvisor is. The bars have their local patrons, they don’t feel the need to drum in business another way.
TripAdvisor is not an accurate judge of establishments at the best of times, but especially not in Logroño. One of my favourite pintxo bars is not even listed on TripAdvisor, let alone coming in the top ten ranked places to eat in the city.
Look for the busy bars and follow the locals. Or just take a leap of faith and try something on a whim. You may be pleasantly surprised!
9 / Get a copy of “Asociación La Laurel Guía de pinchos y platos” from the Tourist Office
This small little booklet is a must for first timers in Logroño and is available for free from the Tourist Office. It’s a guide to many pintxo bars (and some restaurants) in Logroño.
It is written only in Spanish but it has pictures of each bars especialidad which will help, though it might be worth brushing up on some Spanish food terminology before arriving.
It is now available in PDF format from the website too, if you want to get your tastebuds excited for what’s in store.
Have you been to Logroño before? What was your favourite pintxo?
Sara says
Great post! I’ve liked it! Just one thing, it is said pintxos if you are in the Basque Country (in Euskera language), if you are not there you have to write it “pinchos” (Spanish language).
Cyra says
I’m glad you liked it Sara!
It’s true what you are saying (I forgot to mention it in this post but I did at the end of my What is a Pintxo post), but in Logroño (and Navarre too) people use both spellings, probably due to a combination of things – some shared history, Basque people living in the city, and the city bordering with the Basque Country only a couple of kilometres from the city. There are even some Sociedad Gastronomicas calling themselves “txoko” instead of the Spanish word too.
Sara says
Thanks for your answer Cyra!
Maybe I haven’t explained myself well. I wasn’t talking about the words pinchos and tapas. On the north of Spain we all say pinchos but in the Basque Country and the places where the Euskera is spoken (Navarra, por example) they have made disappear the “ch” and put “tx” instead because they write “tx” to pronounce the spanish sound of “ch”. In fact, pinchos is an Spanish word that means spike as almost all the pinchos are put together with a toothpick.
That’s what I meant to say! 🙂
About txoco, that is an Euskera word indeed.
I just wanted to point out that tx in not an Spanish sound and there is not any Spanish word with the t and the x together. In Logroño may be some places where they write it with tx for its proximity to the Basque Country but is not of common usage.
Great blog by the way!
Cyra says
All good, I get what you mean 🙂 Thanks for reading, I’m glad you like it. It’s nice to hear if people are enjoying reading it or not 🙂
Hitch-Hikers Handbook says
Great post, Cyra! We live in Spain and can confirm that what you have written is all true 😉 But we are no specialists, YOU are and we will come back for more food-related knowledge! Well done!
Cyra says
Thanks guys! Where abouts in Spain do you live? It is a great country!
i-one says
i Want Go to the busy bars…
Mike of Mapless Mike says
Thanks for the great post, Cyra! I just got word that I will be teaching English and living in La Rioja come September. I’m really looking forward to it and exploring your site makes me even more excited to be there!
Cyra says
Haha, you will love it. There are so many places, you will be able try a new bar every time you go out! 🙂
Laura (Savored Journeys) says
I feel slightly more prepared to face the crowds now! Thanks for the information. I really feel like we would have a better experience on Calle Laurel if we had a local with us. Do you know anywhere we could find a local English speaker to join us? I’ve found one “tour” but it’s atrociously expensive. Or do you think we can tackle it ourselves and get by okay with our limited Spanish?
Cyra says
It’s possible to do it yourself, I guess it just depends what you want to get out of it! I run a pintxo tour (probably it was mine you found, I only really know of one other person doing the occasional pintxo tour in Logroño, although mine is fairly priced and only a fraction of the cost of most food/walking tours, so perhaps you found another?) But if you just are happy to give it a go it’s easy enough (and less daunting if you are not completely by yourself and have someone to share the experience with!) A lot of times things are out on the bar so it makes it easier to understand what there is available! I’m glad you found the information useful, enjoy Logroño/La Rioja! 🙂