Lovers of Spanish cuisine and culture, rejoice!
The former Handsome Hog space at the corner of Selby and Western avenues in St. Paul is in the process of becoming a full-service Spanish restaurant called Tasca Madrid. A secondary business, San Román Bakery, is currently operating out of the restaurant’s side door.
Owner Alberto Blanco is not from Spain — he grew up in Guatemala — but his grandfather was Spanish, and he’s spent a lot of time there.
Tapas at the new Tasca Madrid on Selby Avenue will be affordable and authentic, owner Alberto Blanco says. (Courtesy of Tasca Madrid)
Tasca Madrid will serve about 50 different types of tapas, small dishes popular in Spain, but also meats and fish seared on a flat-top grill and even paella — which they hope to occasionally cook outdoors, on the restaurant’s stellar patio.
“We’re hoping to bring more than the food, because the scene here has seen Spanish food before,” Blanco said. “It’s more about the way it’s done, a more authentic approach.”
Blanco’s hospitality experience is rich and varied — he has worked for such well-known Twin Cities chefs as Alex Roberts, Stewart Woodman and Hector Ruiz. He also had a restaurant called Angeline in Antigua, Guatemala, that was well-regarded enough to appear in the New York Times and other major publications, but the pandemic ended that endeavor.
It also forced Blanco to re-evaluate his life. Four members of his family died in a single week from COVID.
“I had to come back and ended up working at a biodynamic farm in the state of Washington,” Blanco said. “We had 10 acres, and we had an orchard, lots of apples, pears, grapes, we had a vineyard.”
The experience, he said, prepared him to come back to restaurants.
“It was rewarding, physically and emotionally,” Blanco said. “It saved me. I worked my way back to the Twin Cities once I was ready for facing people again. It was right at the time of (restaurants) reopening.”
He’s been helping to open restaurants ever since, “collecting misfits,” he said — people who want a different way of hospitality life that’s more about creating a work family.
Opening a Spanish restaurant isn’t just about the food for Blanco — he’s a lover of the culture as well and has even danced flamenco, which he hopes to bring to the restaurant at some point. He also likes the idea that many tapas are pre-made, meaning most of the work is prep.
Octopus will be on the menu at the new Tasca Madrid in St. Paul. (Courtesy of Tasca Madrid)
“Prep is the happiest cooking there is,” he said. “You’re chopping, talking with co-workers, talking about how the night went, gossiping.”
It also allows the kitchen to free itself from the brigade system, meaning there’s more equality among kitchen staff instead of a hierarchy.
Besides tapas and freshly prepared meats and fish, the restaurant will have a sherry program and will even make its own vermouth (called vermut in Spain, where many restaurants have a house version). And when you order a glass of sherry, vermouth or Spanish wine, it’ll come with a little tapa, which is very Spanish — they never let you drink without having a little something to nibble on.
Tapas at Tasca Madrid will also be affordable (small tapas start at $5), and offered in three portion sizes to accommodate everything from solo diners to larger groups.
“I really want people to feel like they can hang out with us three times a week, instead of just every six months,” Blanco said. That’s also a very Spanish thing — most residents have small apartments and spend most of their evenings at restaurants, grazing communally with friends and family.
“In America, we shop; in Spain, they eat. It’s a sport,” he said.
Tarta de Santiago (a gluten-free almond cake) at San Román Bakery, which operates out of the side door of Tasca Madrid, a new restaurant coming soon to Selby Avenue in St. Paul. (Courtesy of Tasca Madrid)
Desserts will be created by Oscar Yoc Garcia, who happens to be Blanco’s husband.
You can already sample Yoc Garcia’s work at San Román Bakery, which offers pastries like Basque cheesecake, tarta de nata (little egg-custard tarts) and tarta de Santiago (a gluten-free almond cake), as well as breads, bocadillos (Spanish sandwiches), savory Galician empanadas, Spanish tortillas and a few salads.
Tasca Madrid will open as soon as possible — they’re in the process of obtaining a liquor license. Blanco said he hopes to welcome customers by mid-July.
The bakery is open seven days a week from 7 a.m. to 3 p.m., and Tasca Madrid will be open from 3 p.m. to 10 p.m. weekdays and from 3 p.m. to midnight Friday and Saturday.
Tasca Madrid/San Román Bakery: 173 N. Western Ave., St. Paul; 952-214-4884 ; tascamadrid.com