Sunday, January 07, 2007

Radio Maria's Tapas Bar

Last night we took the opportunity to head to the new Radio Maria tapas bar before our dinner at Radio Maria proper. The restaurant has long been one of favorites in the area for a nice meal, before we lived here actually since we came from Bloomington for special occasions to eat there prior to becoming CU residents. We've seen a lot of change in the place in the 6-7 years we've been eating there, most notably changes in the kitchen that have lead to a wonderful menu, though far less diverse and more static than it was originally.

No changes, however, seem to be bigger than the tapas bar opened adjacent to Radio Maria's by the same owner. Joined by a door much like the new addition across the street at Blind Pig, patrons are now notified that the entrance is through the tapas bar, instead of around the corner where it used to be.

We thought we'd head to our reservations for dinner about an hour early and see how the new bar was, and perhaps order a couple tapas for appetizers to see the menu. We sat at the bar, entering shortly after 6:30 and found plenty of empty seats. There are big, comfy looking booths, some random tall tables and then the bar, which is a monstrously long, and to be honest, annoying blue lighted contraption. All along the walls behind the bar are colored light boxes, giving the air that the place really, really wants to bring a peace of Chicago metro to our little town. Overall, it's a little overwhelming and doesn't quite seem to fit with either the old Radio Maria area (ecclectic in it's own right, but in a very low key way) or with the rest of downtown Champaign for that matter.

We asked for drink menus and the beer and wine selection rivals the places in town known for their vast and varied choices. There were approximately 20-25 beers on tap, vended out from a silver set of taps in the center of the bar area. It's a round vending-like thing with bunches and bunches of little black taps that all look the same. For a "beerie", I wasn't big on the absense of a more traditional looking tap line complete with beer taps from around the world. We learned that each tap is numbered, keeping them identifiable.

We waited some time for even an offer of a menu for tapas, trying hard to catch the eye of the plethora of bar staff the whole time. They all appeared to be fairly green and the place had obviously opened recently (the bar maid I talked to indicated it opened last Thursday and that they had been very busy Friday night). As such, more attention was being paid to when the lighting should be turned lower for ambiance, and how to make an appropriate drink than to people actually sitting at the bar from what we could tell. We watched one server pour random shots without measuring at all, while another would measure carefully to mix, pour and find the liquid far short of the top of the glass, then filling it the rest of the way with ice to compensate (which was already in the glass before). We were also told that the owner had gone out of his way to only hire the best of the best for staff. That said, we didn't recognize a single face behind the bar from the local scene.

When we were finally able to procure tapas menus, we found many things that sounded good on them, though much of it was obvious recycling from the Radio Maria's menus over the years. After sorting through paellas, plantain chips, fried avocado wedge, and other such offerings we finally settled on two items, lamb skewers and bleu cheese and data croquettes. Perhaps I didn't read the menu close enough, but I was surprised when the "lamb skewers" came to find they were essentially two meatballs of ground lamb (a nice way to lengthen meats when you can mix other things in with it) stuck with oversized toothpicks through them. Somewhat dry and overcooked, they were just okay and the sauce that came beneath them, a curried type deal, was a nice accompaniment. The croquettes were heavy on the bleu cheese with just enough date mixed in to give a slightly sweet taste to it, a nice combination. They appeared to have been coated in panko-type breading, which was a nice flaky touch. They were served with "tomato chips", which appeared to be sundried tomatoes perhaps warmed in the oven and some broken up toasted pita. While we ordered with a full half hour prior to our reservations, our food took almost 25 minutes to come out with the bar about three-quarters full of patrons, leaving us stuffing it in to hurry and make our table instead of being able to enjoy and taste with time.

The woman at the table behind me had ordered at some point the scallop tapas, one that had really appealed to me. Scallops are a true kitchen test for restaurants, so easy to overcook, so difficult to obtain good ones in this area. With my back to her, I was able to quickly realize she had ordered the scallops because of the overwhelming fishy smell that suddenly seemed to take over the area. While seafood is fishy, scallops are one of the least so (or should be) and the scent was enough to tell me I had been wise in avoiding such an iffy choice that night.

Overall, I'm not sure we'll go to the tapas bar again, through we will certainly return to Radio Maria. The ambiance was a little over the top, the crowd was more than a little too yuppie (or yerpie, as we said last night, young rural professionals), the bar itself was physically too much to take in and enjoy looking at. The beer selection was the best thing it had going for it, and it was outstanding, but when you can find that in at least two other places in town with much more low key environments, it's not a true selling point. This place may certainly appeal to people who feel the need to go to a place that reminds them of a bigger city than CU, but for us folk who like the quieter, darker and warmer places where we can still get a beer worthy of the beer snob, I'd say we're happier at Blind Pig or Crane Alley.

7 comments:

Gamera said...

Thanks for the review! I saw they looked close to opening, but wasn't sure when that was going to happen.

Hope they work out some of the bugs regarding service in the bar area. One of my pet peeves about Radio Maria is the slow service. Sometimes we have to wait 20 minutes to get our check.... We've stopped going for lunch because we can't make it back in time.

Anonymous said...

that's odd. we were there on sat night and had a great time. of course any new business needs time to get the kinks worked out.

PAMMIE said...

Thanks for this. I was thinking of going there tonight--now at least I have some idea of what it's like. Were their old mesa boats on the tapas menu? I used to love those.

Anonymous said...

Why do midwestern Tapas Bars feel the need to invent Tapas like a "fried avocado wedge"? This is not a tapa.

Why don't they try to execute traditional tapas well and slowly branch out into the exotic.

I was afraid that this restaurant would fall into the same trap that Cafe Luna did - selling distastrous creations under the name "Tapas", failing horribly at execution, and not having anything on the menu that resembles a Tapa - from your review - I see that's likely the case.

I wish the owners would actually travel to Spain.

Who would let stinky scallops out of their kitchen?

Anonymous said...

Amen to this. As a "friend of the family" so to speak, I can't post under my blogger id, but the new menu strikes me as a whole lot of "Hey kids! We got a fryer!" It's not authentic tapas, and it's not particularly what I think of when I think of Radio. The new manager really knows his wine, and they've really done a good job of using only Spanish wines with the faux tapas. But because they aren't real Spanish foods, the wines aren't really shining. They go much better with the regular menu.

There have always been problems with the menu, but recently the focus has been on setting up the new place, so our usual "seasonal" menu change hasn't happened either. Disappointing.

Anyway, my $.02. I hesitate in sending people to the tapas side right now unless they're looking for a smoke-free place to hang out. It will improve over time. I just hope the regulars have some patience with it.

Ms. Maladjusted said...

Thanks for sharing Anon. I too was wondering about the usual seasonal change in the Radio Maria menu that seemed to not occur this time. I certainly understand that though. And agreed on all, from the frying stuff to the spanish wines not really working with the faux tapas menu. And for the record as someone who considers themselves a wine appreciator though not an expert, I have never had much love for spanish wines and would love to at least see some more french, australian and california options at least available. Guess I'll stick to the beers there for the time being (although while the beer menu was extensive and pleasant, many were seasonals from fall and not winter, quickly noted by anyone who follows the microbrews regularly, so some of us in beer clubs have spoken on how long the bottles were sitting around in the storage before that part of the place opened).

I did learn recently that the owner (I think) built the beer tap thing by himself with his own bare hands, which is certainly interesting. Like I said, while the aesthetics of the piece didn't appeal to me, it was interesting to look at and certainly made good use of the space.

I am hoping to return again before we leave town for good to both Radio proper and the tapas counterpart, though I admit, I'm not going to go out of my way if time doesn't permit. I certainly hope for the eventual success of the venture though regardless as we have many fond memories of the place, the food, and the atmosphere!

Anonymous said...

Sweet jesus. Radio has never made overtures they are like Paul Kahan or Homaro Cantu and their Ikea decorating clones. They are human beings, they have an up day, praise them, they have a down day, let them know. Radio has survived for over 10 years in a business where ~80% of new businesses fail before their 3rd anniversary. Along the way they garnered Best Restaurant awards for CU 3x. It's too bad people have a tough time with someone doing something different. I mean it would be so much easier to cash in make another place that serves burgers and "spicy" chicken salads like Cheddars or Applebees or be yet another predictable downtown Champaign bar for pete's sake. Instead they have done something different. And for that attempt at offering something different I have heard people trash away at Radio off and on for over a decade. The owners work their asses off, march to their own beat and and offer up diversity instead of another yawn. Whatever your opinions remember its a bland world so celebrate what's different when you find it. Otherwise look in the mirror and ask yourself what you dared invest yourself in and do differently today.

You had an off experience, let's see, call and tell them? I mean, letting them know would be a good way to make a helpful contribution. Service has always been tough. Your wait is also your bartender, often the busboy and handles 20 customer sections. It's not a 30 minute lunch spot, never has been, wasn't designed to be. Go to Mcd's if yer in a rush or get the soup or salad. It's like being mad at McDonald's for not serving Kobe beef. After having done service for over ten years I still marvel anew at customers screwy time sense. It's always "I waited 20 minutes for my check" when they have to be somewhere. I'm highly skeptical. I have had a significant number of experiences where the check sits and sits without a card or cash out indicating readiness to pay and suddenly they've been waiting "20 minutes". Whatever. Tables are real estate and turning them means cash to a waiter. When you make $3-4 bucks an hour tips mean something. Trust me, every server is motivated to get you out ASAP.

Also the wine manager there is among the top palates in Illinois. Describe what you desire in wine and David would be more than ready to offer suggestions. What is the hang up for where wine comes from? Don't be a wine racist. There are some tremendous Spanish selections as well as the entire list from the restaurant side is also still available.



Caw