A rare thing, this. A place that understands tapas. Not as an excuse for overpriced small plates, but as a complimentary accompaniment to a beverage. Each time you order a drink you get a free snack. Just like the real deal in Spain.
Bota Bar, which is undergoing a “slow opening” according to its website, isn’t primarily a food place. The focus is on beer, cider, and wine (they also have a bottle shop for booze to go). Still, they do the food well. For the first round there are candied nuts and olives. By the second drink, it’s a very tasty plate of pickled sausage and vegetables—such generous proportions that you’ll wonder how they afford it. I’ve no idea.
The small kitchen is worked studiously by one of the owners, as though tinkering with a science project. They have a menu as well, with items such as sardines and toast ($7), where the fish is served straight from the tin, as you’d find in Portugal. There’s a decent simulacra of a Ploughman’s Lunch for $8 (which includes legit pickle), but you have to have British cheddar to pull that off, not Tillamook, please. Other offerings include pork sandwiches, tostada and noodles.
There’s wine on draught: good, European stuff that they sell cheap (from $5 a glass), and unless you really want an Oregon Pinot, there’s no reason to upgrade to a bottle pour for twice the price or more. Beer and cider comes from around the world—on one visit you could bounce from Hood River to Mexico to Norway to Denmark.
I like this place. It’s put together with care, the right shade of eccentric. The seating and tables, with the white brick work, crafted pillows and colorful tiles, have a Moroccan feel. It’s mellow, though it suffers from that big, empty cube feel that new builds have. They’re probably working on it, part of that slow opening.
Bota Bar, 606 NE Davis