Fall in love with this new downtown Sarasota restaurant serving flavorful Spanish food
Columbia, one of my top picks for best Cuban sandwich restaurants in Sarasota, has been serving tapas here on St. Armands Circle since 1959. A large section of their menu is devoted to alluring appetizers, which are ideal for sharing with a special someone and make for an excellent meal when ordered together.
In fact, one of Columbia's most famous dishes is the Ybor City Devil Crab Croquettes ($15), which appears on the tapas menu along with other favorites, including the Scallops "Casimiro" ($20) and Calamares Fritos "Romana" ($18). My wife, Kristin, and I love these dishes, and countless other couples in Sarasota have also surely made special memories while dining from the tapas menu at Columbia. After all, few things are more romantic than sharing a small, delectable plate of food while sipping on freshly made sangria.
One would think the Spanish tapas concept would thrive elsewhere in Sarasota, especially downtown. However, following the closing years ago of Ceviche Tapas Bar & Restaurant (which still operates a location in St. Pete), downtown Sarasota remained bereft of a quality tapas joint — until recently.
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Restaurant review: Beso in downtown Sarasota for tasty tapas in a chic setting
Beso opened about two months ago on the first floor of The Mark condo complex at Lemon Avenue. It's owned by the same folks who operate nearby State Street Eating House + Cocktails, which I've enjoyed since it opened in 2012. However, while State Street excels at things like brunch and burgers, Beso adheres rather strictly to the Spanish tradition of tapas — and I absolutely love that dedication. I'm also a fan of the restaurant's enchanting ambiance.
Beso offers a row of covered outdoor tables lining its large glass wall facing Lemon Avenue. However, the restaurant's real beauty is only revealed when you step inside. It's a truly handsome room featuring high, exposed ceilings and dangling lamps, with wood floors and matching tables surrounded by the kind of chairs that appear ergonomically challenged but actually proved quite comfortable. A sizable, full-liquor bar serves as the centerpiece, with small plants above and larger ones judiciously placed throughout the dining room, which also includes a mezzanine. It's the kind of restaurant that manages to be simultaneously trendy, cozy, and yes, romantic.
The menu, written in Spanish with English descriptions, is divided into several sections, with beverages on one side and food on the other. For drinks, it's an impressive selection of amargo (bitters), cocteles (cocktails), four different kinds of sangria, vermut + jerez (vermouth + sherry), cava + rosado (sparkling wine + rosé), blanco (white wine) and rojo (red wine). Beso also serves my beverage of choice, cervezas, including one of my all-time favorite beers, Estrella Damm, which has been brewed in Barcelona since 1876, and is also served locally at Columbia Restaurant.
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Best foods at Beso include the goat cheese, garlic chicken, grilled steak, stuffed peppers and a special dish made with apricots and chorizo
The food side of the menu is divided into pintxos (appetizers), charcuterie, vegetales, paella (a traditional Spanish rice dish), carnes (meats), pescados (seafood), and postre (dessert). I failed in my attempt to eat from all seven areas of the menu because, unlike my wife, I struggle with portion control and cleaned each plate that came within striking distance of my fork. In fact, if Kristin had not accompanied me, I might have licked a few of those plates clean, beginning with our appetizer, the queso de cabra ($14). Rich and creamy clumps of goat cheese were accompanied by a multitude of roasted cherry tomatoes exploding with flavor, and fresh garlic cloves, all bathed in a pool of olive oil and served with pieces of freshly grilled bread for dipping, which should be mandatory with a dish of this magnitude.
From the pintxo, we proceeded to the top of the carnes list with pollo ajillo ($12), featuring tender pieces of chicken flavored with lots of fresh garlic, sherry, green onions, and chili flakes for a nice kick. While Kristin delicately savored this dish, I attacked the grilled steak, cooked a perfect medium and smartly seasoned with a red chimichurri and a mojo verde ($18). We were both equally enamored with the pork and chorizo-stuffed red peppers served in a gorgeous orange-colored, saffron-infused sauce dotted with slivered almonds ($13).
By this point, having consumed the queso de cabra and the pollo ajillo, the picanha and the piquillo rellenos, and perhaps an Estrella or two, I was pretty full. However, I figured one more dish would not kill me and asked our highly informative and attentive server, Brandon, for a suggestion. Without hesitation, he directed to us a dish called "higos" ($17). Now, here's the thing, "higos" translates to "figs" in English, but our server said since figs were out of season, they were making the dish with apricots. Of course, I've had apricots before, but they never tasted as good as this.
The cooked apricots arrived warm and tender while still retaining their structure and unique sweetness and tartness, a flavor profile that paired perfectly with the chorizo crumbles placed on top. A smooth and rich manchego crema surrounded the fruit and deftly seasoned pork sausage, along with a spot-on kiss of balsamic and more of those delightfully crunchy slivered almonds. Fig or no fig, the "higos" dish at Beso is one of the most delectable and distinctive that I have tasted in recent memory.
Yes, even if your significant other attempts to fork every morsel of food that passes his way and contemplates licking his plate clean, you should still fall in love with this new downtown Sarasota restaurant. Kristin and I loved it so much that we returned to the nearby Gator Club, my favorite downtown bar, by the way, and raved about Beso to anyone who would listen. Our talk quickly turned to Columbia Restaurant and all I can say is that it's nice that our fair city of Sarasota now has two lovely options for legit tapas.
Beso is at 30 S. Lemon Ave., Sarasota. For more information, call 941-279-2999 or visit besosrq.com.
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Wade Tatangelo is Ticket Editor for the Sarasota Herald-Tribune, and Florida Regional Dining and Entertainment Editor for the USA TODAY Network. Follow him on Twitter, Facebook and Instagram. He can be reached by email at wade.tatangelo@heraldtribune.com. Support local journalism by subscribing.
This article originally appeared on Sarasota Herald-Tribune: Fall in love with new Sarasota restaurant Beso serving Spanish food
