Tapas

Fifty years is a long time to have a bad reputation. That's almost how long Silver Lake's El Cid - the Spanish restaurant known for its flamenco dinner theater - has been open. It's also about how long Angelenos have raved about the show while lamenting the quality of the food and drink. The venue is now under new management, however, and the guardians of the historic space are as serious about food as they are about hosting quality entertainment. Owner Scott Milano has brought in foodie and organic jam-maker Laura Ann Masura to revamp the bar program and chef Olivia Hernandez to create a menu of seasonal tapas.

Fifty years is a long time to have a bad reputation. That's almost how long Silver Lake's El Cid - the Spanish restaurant known for its flamenco dinner theater - has been open. It's also about how long Angelenos have raved about the show while lamenting the quality of the food and drink. The venue is now under new management, however, and the guardians of the historic space are as serious about food as they are about hosting quality entertainment. Owner Scott Milano has brought in foodie and organic jam-maker Laura Ann Masura to revamp the bar program and chef Olivia Hernandez to create a menu of seasonal tapas.

The Spanish are on to a good thing with tapas, those lusty little bites that bars in Spain put out in the early evening. Ever wondered how the Spanish can eat dinner at 11 or later? Because they stave off hunger pangs and socialize earlier in the evening at tapa bars, ordering wines by the glass and nibbling on anchovies, chorizo and garlicky sautéed shrimp. In L.A., we now have enough restaurants specializing in tapas that you could actually do some bar hopping. But that would involve a bit of driving.

2011 Ameztoi Rosé Getariako Txakolina "Rubentis" This rosé from the Spanish Basque country is something different. Grown on the hillside vineyards above the small fishing town of Getaria, the Ameztoi "Rubentis" is essentially a pink Txakolina made with a blend of white and red grapes. Ever so slightly pétillant , it has the minerality and a bright citrusy quality that makes it ideal with spicy foods. Open a bottle with fiery Thai or Indian dishes. I love it with ceviche, anything with anchovies or sardines.

I recently enjoyed a tapas dinner excursion in Madrid known as Adventurous Appetites; $50 included food and drink at the first stop. We visited four tapas bars in about 3 1/2 hours. For a solo traveler, it was a unique way to connect with others and enjoy local (nontourist) night spots. Adventurous Appetites, 011-34-639-331-073, http://www.adventurousappetites.com Jim Morrow, Culver City

Alegria, the new tapas bar on Pine Avenue in Long Beach, has a stylishly mad-cap look, as if the alegria--or happiness--in question was the intoxicated, transient giddiness of Pedro Almodovar's happy endings. A cute, swoopy counter lines a brick wall hung with colorful, cartoonishly framed Miro and Picasso posters. Over the bar, from iron racks, swing skeins of chiles and garlic and whole dry hams--and I mean whole: Each ham still sports a leg and cloven hoof.

It has proven rather amusing of late to tell people that restaurateur Paul Dobson has opened a new tapas bar in downtown San Diego. The word tapas seems to register incorrectly with about three out of five listeners. Their eyes narrowing in amazement or amusement, these folks tend to blurt: "Dobson has opened a topless bar?"

Tell me, what food-loving traveler can visit San Sebastian in the Spanish Basque country and not fall head over heels for pintxos (pronounced "peenchos"), the local version of tapas? It happened to me. It's happened to countless other foodies discovering Basque cuisine for the first time. And it happened to Joe Miller, chef-owner of Joe's Restaurant in Venice and now of Bar Pintxo in Santa Monica too. Slip into one of the more than 50 tapas bars lining the twisting, narrow streets of San Sebastian's old town, order a glass of Txakolina wine, try one or more of the house specialties and then move on to the next bar for its specialties.

By Allesandro Street, Glendale Boulevard is teeth-gnashing desperate to get onto the Glendale Freeway. At this last moment, with freedom just in sight, not a whole lot of traffic stops at the little corner mall. Of course, there's not much there. Just a market, a dentist, a video store and the blazing yellow Restaurant Spain.

2011 Ameztoi Rosé Getariako Txakolina "Rubentis" This rosé from the Spanish Basque country is something different. Grown on the hillside vineyards above the small fishing town of Getaria, the Ameztoi "Rubentis" is essentially a pink Txakolina made with a blend of white and red grapes. Ever so slightly pétillant , it has the minerality and a bright citrusy quality that makes it ideal with spicy foods. Open a bottle with fiery Thai or Indian dishes. I love it with ceviche, anything with anchovies or sardines.

For all of the hundreds of restaurants in L.A.'s Koreatown, tucked behind untranslated signs and inside barely marked skyscrapers, in sleek malls and dusty strip centers, the area has never had much in the way of recognizable chefs. Generations of Los Angeles Koreans and Korean Americans have been going to Ham Ji Park for pork ribs and to Masan for monkfish soup, to Ham Hung for cold buckwheat noodles and to Mountain for abalone porridge, but the cooks have been mostly behind the scenes.

Spain has a post-holiday tradition that goes way beyond Black Friday. Each year the country conducts an entire month of January sales, or rebajas , that make winter a good time to visit. Illinois-based Tourcrafters offers a four-night Madrid shopping trip through the end of the month that starts at $485 per person. On this tour, bargain hunters have free time to check out the Mercado de San Miguel food market, the Rastro antique flea market and El Corte Ingles department store while enjoying tapas and wine-tastings along the way. Dates: The five day/four-night tour is offered for travel through Jan. 31. Price: $485 per person, based on double occupancy (this tour is offered in February and March for a higher price)

The Spanish are on to a good thing with tapas, those lusty little bites that bars in Spain put out in the early evening. Ever wondered how the Spanish can eat dinner at 11 or later? Because they stave off hunger pangs and socialize earlier in the evening at tapa bars, ordering wines by the glass and nibbling on anchovies, chorizo and garlicky sautéed shrimp. In L.A., we now have enough restaurants specializing in tapas that you could actually do some bar hopping. But that would involve a bit of driving.

In Porto, I remember eating sardines grilled outside a little restaurant near the sea accompanied by gulps of chilled vinho verde . It's easier to find the wine here now, and this bottling is well worth seeking out. Look for the characteristic tall slope-shouldered shape and the distinctive Trajarinho label. Pour a glass: It tastes alive. It's similar to Spain's Txakoli, only the grapes get more sun in Portugal, so you have not only that bracing snap of acidity but also beautiful ripe fruit.

A 4-year-old red from Rioja for less than $20? That's why Bodegas Sierra Cantabria always gets such high marks for its price/quality ratio. Winemaker Marcos Eguren conjures up a delicious intro-level Rioja, one that anybody would be proud to serve. Modern in style, it has both fruit and intensity without sacrificing elegance. Layers of blackberries and spice and its well-integrated tannins make the 2007 Sierra Cantabria Rioja "Crianza" a great quaffing wine. Have it with grilled sausages, charcuterie, tapas and first courses.

Pattern Bar Where: 100 W. 9th St., downtown L.A. When: 11 a.m.-midnight Mon.-Thu., 11-2 a.m. Fri.-Sat. Price: Beer, $6-$9; cocktails, $10; tapas, $6-$12 Info: (213) 627-7774; patternbar.com

In Porto, I remember eating sardines grilled outside a little restaurant near the sea accompanied by gulps of chilled vinho verde . It's easier to find the wine here now, and this bottling is well worth seeking out. Look for the characteristic tall slope-shouldered shape and the distinctive Trajarinho label. Pour a glass: It tastes alive. It's similar to Spain's Txakoli, only the grapes get more sun in Portugal, so you have not only that bracing snap of acidity but also beautiful ripe fruit.

A 4-year-old red from Rioja for less than $20? That's why Bodegas Sierra Cantabria always gets such high marks for its price/quality ratio. Winemaker Marcos Eguren conjures up a delicious intro-level Rioja, one that anybody would be proud to serve. Modern in style, it has both fruit and intensity without sacrificing elegance. Layers of blackberries and spice and its well-integrated tannins make the 2007 Sierra Cantabria Rioja "Crianza" a great quaffing wine. Have it with grilled sausages, charcuterie, tapas and first courses.

The concrete walls of the new M.B. Post (short for Manhattan Beach Post) are stenciled with giant faded postmarks beneath a barrel-vaulted ceiling. The design by Stephen Francis Jones of SF Jones Architects plays off the fact that from the '50s through the '70s the building was the beach town's post office. And even though old mail-sorting slots are used as dividers in the dining room, that long-ago post office definitely didn't have a tapas bar. And it's a fairly sure bet that few of the people picking up their mail back then had an inkling about Spanish cuisine or ingredients like yuzu kosho or white anchovies.

The dimly lighted dining room pulses with gritty hip-hop and clanking silverware as diners eagerly await what's being constructed in a kitchen filled with tattooed chefs, steam and sharp focus. A bartender wearing blinged-out earrings swaggers over to a table to drop off a 40-ounce bottle of Olde English swaddled in a brown paper bag. Another trails closely behind with a carafe of fresh-squeezed orange juice to top off the concoction, an urban mimosa named after the Beastie Boys tune "Brass Monkey.