Jon Clarke (Publisher & Editor)
THERE isn’t much Alberto Reyes doesn’t know about food…so it’s appropriate he’s at the frontline of fine dining in Vejer.
His restaurant 4 Estaciones is at the epicentre of one of Andaulcia’s nerve centres to eat.
Open since 2017, it’s impossible to dine badly in his joint which is as attractive on the eye as it is tasty on the stomach.
Much of this is thanks to his careful selection of chefs, with his latest signing, Esperanza Macias, having trained at Andalucia’s top restaurant, Aponiente, which counts on three Michelin stars, at nearby El Puerto de Santa Maria.
“You need to continually up your game here and keep trying new things,” explains Reyes, who grew up locally and previously ran the highly-rated Arohaz, in nearby Canos de Meca.
“You need to understand how to use local products and change them by the season and always hire talented chefs in the kitchen.”
But even then, there is no guarantee you will survive, with the town continually evolving and refining its range of restaurants.
“In fact, they should be doing a university course on the success of Vejer’s food revolution,” continues Reyes, who is speaking at an interior table of his charming joint surrounded by books on cuisine from all corners of the globe.
It says a lot about his mindset, which might be local in terms of produce but is clearly extremely global in terms of ambition.
He is one of many success stories in Vejer, which counts on around a dozen of entries in the latest Repsol dining guide for Spain.
While many are in its nearby environs (or greater Vejer) including Canos de Meca and El Palmar, the centre of Vejer is the place to start.
Take recent arrivals Jaime and Alejandra, whose restaurant Narea landed a much sought after Repsol Sol in under a year.
A charming spot on the prestigious Corredera street with the most breathtaking views helped, but what sets it aside is the amazing drive and industry of this young culinary pair.
They have three star pedigree all the way, having met at one of Spain’s best restaurants, El Celler de Can Roca, before honing their skills at Madrid’s top restaurant Diverxo.
With six Michelin stars between the two joints, what they learnt was invaluable, before launching into their first place together.
Coming from Malaga and Cadiz, they were fully aware of the quality of restaurants in Vejer, and it is a real honour they overlooked Andalucia’s famous cities to land in the town.
“We knew about the famous quality here and we knew many of the restaurants as well as many of the local farmers.
“We figured we had something new and unique to offer and it is a real honour for Repsol to give us this award so quickly,” Jaime told me.
As Jaime explains, so much of the quality here is due to the local seafood, vegetables and meat.
But Vejer’s extraordinary location, charming architecture and remarkable views also help.
You need, however, to get out into the countryside nearby to seek out other gems.
I spent a long time travelling around the nearby area for my book Dining Secrets of Andalucia a decade ago and was shocked to discover so many amazing places to eat.
One of the best is Patria, a ten minute drive inland, through a genuine backwater of Cadiz province that almost no tourists venture.
Danish couple Ase and Thomas have the most amazing taste and are continually changing their menu, and even concept.
“I’m forever experimenting and trying new things,” explains chef Thomas, who also runs a natural juice business and has recently opened a new joint, Hierbas, in the centre of Vejer .
“The opportunity came up and we thought we might try a typical Danish sandwich business and so far so good,” he adds.
Culinary history
I first found this culinary heaven when I landed at seminal restaurant Trafalgar (named after the nearby naval battle) on a side trip into the town centre, en route to Cadiz, nearly 20 years ago.
It stood out, appropriately, like a lighthouse in what was then something of a culinary desert.
A great mix of local and national dishes, lots with twists, led me back here a few months later when I stayed at the charming local hotel, Califa, literally right across the square.
And that’s when I got the surprise of my life, it had an amazing hidden restaurant in its courtyard garden, focusing on local cuisine, as well as Moroccan fare from over the Straits.
It also turned out to have a British owner, James Stuart, a former travel guide and cycling pro, who decided he wanted to up the ante and take on his near neighbour.
“Apart from Trafalgar the food was so boring back in the early noughties,” explains the hard-working Scotsman, who now has 10 restaurants and hotels in the area. “There was no Chinese, no Indian, no Japanese, and so we hoped to do something different.
“It didn’t take long to work out that we had to open a Moroccan restaurant, particularly as all the ingredients were literally on our doorstep, with the exception perhaps of couscous.”
He continues: “The two restaurants ended up setting the standard for the future.
“We knew we had to match Trafalgar for service and we tried to create our own niche,” continues the father-of-two, who came to Spain to open a cycling business in the 1990s.
“From then on anyone who opened a restaurant in Vejer had to be at our level…and from about 2010 as the recession ended things started to take off,”
Within the next few years the town could count on perhaps a dozen new places to eat, including el Muro, Judería and Casa Varo, while outside town emerged meat restaurant Castilleria, Campero and Antonio.
And there were still some amazingly authentic places to still eat as well.
They included the charming, Venta el Toro, in Santa Maria, gloriously unpretentious and little wonder celebrity American/Spanish chef Jose Andres, brought his daughters here for a recent food programme.
Little changed in decades, it is one of the last genuine redoubts of quintessential Andalucia, and the food, while simple, is absolutely delicious.
But, of course, it has to be in a town that nowadays has at least a dozen amazing places to eat, the genuine melting pot of the best of Andalucia!
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