If I had a... Pintxos Bar @ Alta

On Sunday March 8th, Alta’s dining room is transformed into a Spanish-style Pintxos bar.

Alta is a Soho restaurant rooted in open-fire cooking and the food culture of Northern Spain. Led by chef Rob Roy Cameron, Alta brings together bold, produce-led cooking with the convivial style of eating found across Basque and Catalan bars.

Rob’s cooking is shaped by years spent in some of Spain’s finest kitchens, including time at elBulli, followed by working closely with Albert Adrià on the opening of Tickets and 41 Degrees. Those kitchens defined a generation of Spanish cooking, and the influence is reflected at Alta.

On this one-off Sunday, instead of a traditional seated lunch, the room takes on the feel of the streets of Logroño, moving from bar to bar, ordering a single pintxos at each stop, eating standing up, and letting the afternoon unfold at your own pace.

The Alta dining room is completely transformed into four live stations: grill, fryer, chilled, and of course, drinks. Expect the usual Spanish beers, wines and vermouth. Guests move freely between each station, ordering directly from the chefs as dishes are cooked in front of them. It feels closer to hopping between pintxos bars than dining in a single restaurant, a format that does not exist in London. Across the afternoon, you will offered a menu of 13 pintxos, each served fresh and designed to be eaten standing at the counter.

The day runs as one continuous, relaxed service from 2pm to 5pm. Just as you would in Spain, arrive when it suits you, eat at your own pace, have a drink, move between stations, and settle in for a proper Sunday afternoon.