Rickey’s weekend

Rickey went out for dinner on Saturday night…he went to one of his favorite places, Ataula. It’s a tiny Spanish Tapas place near 23rd and close to downtown. The wife and I love, love, love this place and have many great meals here. Most of the time we get to meet up with friends and have a few tapas and a pitcher of Sangria while watching the chef, Jose Chesa, prepare the amazing meals as well as the bartenders mixing up some fantastic drinks. The atmosphere is really cool and family oriented (not really kid friendly though, at least not ours). The chef came to Portland from Barcelona with his wife a few years and slowly built up his place and it’s become one of the more popular Tapas bars in our area.

The visit also gave Rickey a chance to see what’s up in the wonderful world of culinary delights for Portland. One quick look at the menu and he is already pointing to my staple, Tortilla de Patata. I know it’s kind of cliche, but man i love potatoes and eggs. Love them…and so does Rickey. Just look at that smile! He also loved the Albondigas which is nearly impossible to not order. It’s a meatball with beef and pork. WTF!

Rickey wasn’t drinking today, but the wife and I sure as hell were! Our bill is mostly glasses of Sangria. They won’t let us get our own pitcher unless we have a third party and i was like…hello…have you seen wallet card Rickey! Didn’t work.

By the time our first plates came through, i was one drink in and losing focus…i’ve become a lightweight apparently. Not ashamed or proud of that, just a comment on the evenings events. The quickness with which I downed my first glass may reflect on the poor image quality of the croquetas, but trust me, these fried balls of cod was amazing. I found myself cutting them in to little pieces so i could make them last longer. I always find myself trying to convince my wife to let me have half of one of her balls…there’s a joke there somewhere…