UK to get first Cava bar

Just months after opening a sherry and tapas bar in London, Spanish chef Jose Pizarro will launch the UK's first Cava bar.

Pizarro has purchased another restaurant in the same street as his sherry and tapas bar. Formerly known as The Bermondsey Kitchen, the new restaurant will reopen in late October as ‘Pizarro’, focusing on Cava and Spanish food beyond tapas.

Pizarro told Decanter.com, ‘I’m sick of people saying Cava is no good. We are used to drinking very good Cavas in Spain but they are not well known in export markets. ‘

The restaurant will focus on traditional Spanish food. He added: ‘It’s going to be a true Spanish restaurant with soups and stews. We don’t just eat tapas and paella in Spain!’

Written by Rebecca Gibb

Rebecca Gibb MW is a wine journalist and editor who has also founded Bamboozled games, ‘the world’s first wine and spirit puzzle makers’. Having spent six years living in New Zealand, she has recently returned to her native north-east England. While in New Zealand, she became a Master of Wine, graduating top of her class and winning the Madame Bollinger medal for excellence in tasting. A former winner of both the UK’s young wine writer of the year and the Louis Roederer Emerging Wine Writer, her first book The Wines of New Zealand was published in 2018. She also runs wine events and has her own consultancy business The Drinks Project. She was a judge at the 2019 Decanter World Wine Awards (DWWA).