Bar Plaza, Vera
Tapas, for those of you who don´t know, are a time honoured Andalucian tradition, consisting of a small portion of food served with your drink. The idea´s been grabbed by fashionable Madrileños, who have refined it and exported it world wide, but I still don´t think it´s a proper tapa unless it fulfills it´s original function of keeping the flies out of your drink. And the idea of being charged for a tapa is enough to make the local boy in me rise up in protest.
That said, on bad days when I have to hide from the customers, I´ll often call up a couple of friends at midday and vanish off for a quick drink and a few tapas. If we have to be back soon, we go to Meson Verfran in Los Gallardos – if not, further afield. A firm favourite of ours has always been Bar Plaza, in Vera, just opposite the bull ring.
They don´t serve proper meals, but it´s always busy with local workers who have popped in for a few tapas, or their big brothers the infamous racion (a ration of whatever, larger than a bite size tapa, but you do have to pay for it instead of getting it free with a drink). Two large vitrinas show off the currently available tapas, and they usually have a selection of embutidos (cured meats) behind the counter. Drinks are a lot cheaper than in the usual tourist rip off bars, the coffees actually quite good for a workers bar, and it´s always spotless.
The methodology? Order a drink, point to the food, and smile. If they try to charge you for the tapa, simply point out that you’re not from Madrid.
Where is it?
Bar Plaza, Vera
Opposite the bullring, next to the old SEDESA office.
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Just stumbled across your sight find it very informative and quite funny. spent a short holiday last year in Mojacar pueblo and thought it was a very nice village.