Wined, dined and rested.

Back for a few days in Zaragoza, one of our favourite Spanish towns, we were lucky enough to be taken by our friends to a spectacular restaurant called “Sr Cachopo”.

Before describing our cachopo adventure, I will do a quick encyclopaedia item on the cachopo, a food item that has become hugely popular across Spain in recent years. There are cachopo competitions and cachopo league tables, “best cachopo in Spain” awards, and little specialist cachopo bars breaking out all over the place….  It originated in the early 20^th century in Asturias in the north of Spain, a beautiful region of rich grassy hills and mountains where beef cattle roam and the grass is as high as an elephant’s eye. The word “cachopo” started life as a word to describe a hollow tree trunk where woodsmen would keep their tools overnight, and then was borrowed to describe this dish whose exterior crisp breadcrumb coating encloses two thin slices of beef with serrano ham and Asturian cheese between them. The whole thing is then cooked, usually fried, and served with chips and salad. (For those who are intimate with Spanish cuisine, cachopo fans insist indignantly that a cachopo is COMPLETELY different from a San Jacobo and a Flamenquín.)  (For those NOT intimate with Spanish cuisine, don’t worry – it’s all a bit niche.)

It is difficult to find reservations in this recently-opened restaurant – not only do they specialise in cachopos, but their décor and theme is beautifully thought-out. You turn up at the door which clearly says “Antigüedades Sr Cachopo” and you wonder if your friends have lost the plot, or did you misunderstand and actually they’re taking you to an evening at an antiques shop.

You go in and you are in a tiny vintage shop, circa 1930s with nicknacks (mostly) from that era. Someone has had fun creating this.

You look around admiringly and you see what looks like a honkytonk piano…..

… and some old books on an ornate set of shelves, and looking at these pictures now someone clearly found a job lot of (not 1930s) portable typewriters which they added to the eclectic collection.

Once your reservation is confirmed, the receptionist presses a button and the shelves slide aside, speakeasy style, to let you in to the restaurant where suddenly you are in, er, Alcatraz?

The 1930s and Alcatraz theme runs throughout the restaurant, you can even book one of the tables inside a reconstructed prison cell, and the place mats are facsimile gangster-era newspapers….

You do have to be prepared to enter into the spirit (excuse the pun) of the theatre – as far as I know there was no prohibition in Spain during the 1930s or any other period, and in the magnificent scenario of Sr Cachopo you have to accept that Alcatraz and Prohibition have merged into the same thing…..

The one thing that must have been supremely irritating to the creative team that designed this gorgeous restaurant is that when it opened a year ago to a fanfare of publicity it was called “Alcachopo” – aha, now we see where the idea of Alcatraz came from – but it turned out there was already a restaurant in Spain with that name (in Alcalá de Henares, close to Madrid, according to my research) so the Zaragoza version had to change itself to Señor Cachopo.

However it is still hugely popular, and rightly so – this is dining as a theatrical experience. The cachopos are excellent examples of their kind, the meat was perfectly cooked (which must be quite a challenge when you are deep frying the whole package), the melting cheese just right and the crispy outside gives a delightful mix of textures and flavours. The four of us chose one traditional cachopo, as described above, and one called “Brooklyn’s Gangsta” (I think the subtlety of gangster vs gangsta may have escaped the creative team) which had smoked sausage inside between the slices of beef, and a huge rasher of bacon on top.

The theatre continues when they bring the food – some come to the table inside a wooden box (not sure if this was a slightly morbid gangster reference) ……

others on a wooden object shaped like a boat and with delicious deep fried swirly spiralised potato on top ….

and a waitress blowtorches it to finish it off:

A cachopo is very filling, even when shared by two people, so we didn’t make it through to the pudding course despite the declaration on the menu that “a meal without pudding is like a suit without a tie”. We missed out therefore on a melting middle chocolate pudding, a lemon sorbet, a cheesecake and a tiramisu.

The whole experience was a really lovely way to spend an evening, all the more so when shared with friends; I imagine it would be a terrific experience for a whole group of people, then you could sample a little of all the cachopos on offer.

So yes, a fantastic time was had by all and you stagger out from the sliding bookcase at the end of the meal very full and with a smile on your face because it’s all been done so well. I am always saying what a foodie town Zaragoza is – it really is – so if you plan a few days there to test my statement, do build in an evening here. It may be more theatre than foodie, but it’s worth it for the fun. Just make sure you go with really good friends, like we did.