June 23rd, 2026

10 min read

Northern Spain - Part 1

May ‘26

The Basque Country is one of the most singular cultures in Europe and the launch point for our 2026 Tour of Northern Spain. The area straddles the Pyrenees and stretches south into the northern edge of Rioja. The Basque Country predates the nations on either side of it. The language, Euskara, predates Latin, is one of the oldest in the world and remains mind bogglingly unrelated to any other language on earth.

The food, of course, is where this identity becomes most legible.

It started with necessity. Slow-roasted lamb, braised beans, croquettes. Cooking built from what the land and sea provided, prepared with patience.

Then came pintxos. Small bites invented in the 1940’s that turned the act of eating into something social, almost theatrical. You don't sit down for a pintxos meal. You move, bar to bar, bite to bite, glass to glass. It is the most civilized form of grazing ever devised.

Everything here is deliberate. The food, the language, the architecture, the stubborn insistence to resist the pressure to assimilate. The culinary equivalent of a shrug and another round of pintxos.

We arrived early though, ahead of the official tour, to visit the Guggenheim, in Bilbao.

Built in the late 1990’s and designed by Canadian architect Frank Gehry, the building itself is a masterpiece. Art based on form, design, and material. Titanium curves that catch the light differently every hour. From eye level it resembles a ship, from above, it looks like a flower.

Inside, we checked out a few of the permanent installations including one of the largest and most ambitious sculptural commissions of the modern era, by Richard Serra. Six sculptures that occupy the entire room. The giant free standing sculptures made the space feel like it flowed around you. Every piece in the installation is made from weathering steel, the kind typically used in bridges and buildings, which slowly shifts from grey to orange to a dark brownish tone over years of oxidation. The installation enables the spectator to perceive the evolution of Serra's sculpted forms, from a relatively simple double ellipse to the more complex spiral, creating a dizzying, unforgettable sensation of space in motion as viewers walk in and around them.

There were so many installations and exhibitions that I was interested in. Including two pieces by American artist Jean-Michel Basquiat and a collection of wire baskets by Japanese artist Ruth Asawa.

Lauren and I toured together, and by the end, we agreed, this was the most incredible contemporary art experience of our lives. 10/10 strongly recommend!

From Bilbao, our tour would officially begin in San Sebastián, the undisputed foodie capital of the world. We stayed in the Old Town, because that's where the action is. The Hotel LaSala Plaza overlooks the marina on the Bay of Biscay.

Our group gathered in the hotel bar for a welcome drink, and quick orientation. Then with local guides Sandra and Begonia, we visited five pintxos bars and sampled the house specialty at each one. Every single spot was a banger!

First, you must have a Gilda, the quintessential pintxo. The Gilda is arguably the most important bite in Spain. Not the most elaborate or the most expensive. The most important.

It's considered the first modern pintxo, the origin of an entire Basque culinary culture that today projects the area as a global gourmet destination. And it happened almost entirely by accident. In 1946, at Bar Casa Vallés in San Sebastián, a regular customer picked up a toothpick and skewered three things that were already sitting on the bar counter: an olive, a pickled pepper, and an anchovy. The owners tasted it and immediately started serving it.

The name is an homage to the 1946 American film noir Gilda, starring Rita Hayworth, whose character was described as spicy, sassy, and a little dangerous. Under Franco's deeply conservative Spain, a character like Gilda, independent, sensual, and defiant, landed with particular force.

The flavor profile earns the comparison: salty from the Cantabrian anchovy, acidic from the pickled guindilla pepper, and fatty-vegetable from the olive. Simple and explosive.

Next, uni cream w/roe and grilled baby calamari w/ink at Bar Sport.

But if I had to pick a favorite this time, it's Casa Urola. Order the seared foie gras and white beans.

No pintxos experience is complete without a drink. Always try the house txakoli, it's the local white wine, crisp and refreshing, endlessly versatile with food. Alternatively, Basque ciders are dry, funky, low in alcohol and perfect with the local fare.

At it’s core, our adventures highlight local food and wine. The following day, the tour really got started!  We visited my favorite producer of txakoli, Ameztoi. Located in the sea side town of Getaria, the vineyards are so close to the coast that the vines are trellised overhead to prevent mildew by allowing the wind to blow through like a hair dryer.

Together we took a private tour of the cellar followed by a tasting of their top wines.

My friends, I've eaten amazing food in a lot of places. I've sat on plastic stools in a Kyoto fish market, waited in line for Aaron Franklin’s BBQ in Austin, taken Thomas Keller’s best shot at the French Laundry. I have no complaints.

San Sebastián is different, and I want you to understand exactly what I mean by that. The seafood here is some of the best in the world, thanks to it’s merroir, or marine terroir. The Cantabrian Sea produces incredible anchovies and seafood that taste unmistakably of this specific coastline.

San Sebastián is a small city on the northern coast of Spain, less than 200k residents. The entire population has apparently decided, collectively, that the daily preparation and consumption of delicious food is of primary importance. They are correct, they have always been correct. The rest of us are still catching up.

The pintxos bars in the Old Town operate on a system of almost aggressive generosity. Small bites, maximum effort, the kind of cooking that makes you question every restaurant from now on. You will stand at a bar. You will order in broken Spanish. Nobody will care. The food will arrive anyway and it will be delicious and unreasonably affordable.

Drink txakoli and cider. They’re cold, they’re crisp, they’re poured from a height for reasons I respect completely. Order the foie. Order whatever they tell you to order. This is not the time for opinions.

There are more Michelin stars per square mile here than anywhere else on earth. I mention this not to impress you, but to warn you, because you could eat at every three-star temple in town and still leave feeling like the best meal was the one you had standing up at the third bar on a side street at 11pm on a Tuesday.

From San Sebastián, our group departed by private coach, bound for Rioja. The most celebrated wine region in Spain…

To be continued….

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