Next guests arrive

 So as we head into MAY! yes MAY! we are about to host our last guests for this season. John & Stephanie arrive Wednesday. On Sunday night, as Feria was drawing to a close, we went to Casapuerta.  The carpaccios for starters (beef and tuna) and the mains were fried bacalao (to celebrate the closing night of Feria de Abril) and baby lamb chops (a Phil favorite.) As always great service from Manuel and Blanca and the whole team. At exactly midnight we heard the fireworks marking the cklose of the fair. For fifteen minutes it sounded as if it was somcing from all directions around our apartment. I think the foot traffic in the city will pick up now. 

Tried a "new to us" restaurant Monday night. It was so beautiful we wanted to love it. The decor was fabulous. A courtyard with a huge skylight. Lemon trees and a fountain graced the dining area. The aseos had original and creative artwork. (Some shown in the photos)The whole place made me feel like I wanted to move in.  

Unfortunately we'd have to hire a new chef if we did. We ordered three dishes. The salad was undressed and we waited quite a while for the dressing to appear. The artichokes were topped with a carbonara guanciale cream and that was good but the artichokes were nothing special. But the final issue: what should have been an excellent arroz dish arrived luke warm instead of hot. Sadly, a complete "miss" on the food.   We redeemed the evening by going around the corner to make a reservation at our favorite sushi place in town for the week after our guests depart.

John and Stephanie arrived exactly at noon. They had lunch with Phil whiole I attended to some work at home. Then the shopped while laundry was going LOL. The three of them went to Catalina El Bar for drinks outside before dinner and I napped (got up way too early) for an hour. We heaed off to Augurio for dinner. We had our regular favorite dishes and then stopped at MITO on the way home. Excellent meal, as usual, with great service despite a full restaurant.

J&S went off the next morning to explore Triana and Plaza de Cuba areas of town. They came home in time to ready themselves for dinner.  We ate outside last night in the Plaza Pescaderia at Tradevo. We had a very nice Cabracho (Scorpion fish), four brioche calamarcitas, four taco gambones, two canelón aguacate y langostino, and (not shown) two cazuelitas de verduras. Everything was great and we had our favorite server which only made the whole experience better.  We went to MITO (3) on the way home. This location is in very busy Plaza Salvador and one of the most popular bar/restaurant there was lit up so nicely I had to stop for a photo.

Dinner Friday night right next to the bullring. Good food. Episodically good service. The place was busy on this Friday night of the long weekend. 

Saturday night - we headed to Manolo Mayo for a  traditional meal of sea bass cooked in salt and presa along with arroz meloso perdize. And starters of anchoas, gildas, boquerones, and foie gras to begin the meal. House made vermut and an Emilio Morro wine to accompany the food capped an interesting early evening procession that wrapped around our building. Photos from the living room and one of the bedroom balconies.

then the photos of the procession - taken from our our apartment balconies:

Our final night on John & Stephanie's trip was at YO. A lovely evening. Started with cocktails on the way to dinner. Then the longer menu with 7 wine pairings at YO. Now our fourth visit and still flawless service of beautiful course with a tasty creative menu. All shown below. John & Stephanie leave at dawn tomorrow so tonight was a farewell dinner for this trip to Sevilla.

And that brings us to our farewell tour of Sevilla restaurants and last weeks of packing up and getting ready to leave for the summer in Chicago. More to follow-