Bar Kroketa to bring Basque bar-crawl tradition to Broadgate Circle with Pintxo-Pote festival

Bar Kroketa will host a one-day Basque food and drink festival at Broadgate Circle in the City of London on Saturday 26^th September, running from midday until 6pm. Titled Pintxo-Pote, the event takes place both inside the restaurant and outside on the Circle itself, and is intended to recreate the format of a traditional Basque bar crawl in a single location.

The name refers to the Basque custom of moving between bars, ordering a drink and a pintxo at each. Rather than requiring guests to travel between venues, the festival will gather a series of pop-up “barstops” in one place, each offering a different regional drink or dish. Attendees will be able to move between the stops over the course of the afternoon, meeting producers and sampling wines and other drinks along the way.

The drinks line-up includes Txakoli, the Basque region’s lightly sparkling white wine, which will be poured from height in the traditional manner, as well as natural Basque cider, Rioja and other Basque wines, beer, and drinks inspired by the region. Food will include pintxos such as Gildas – the skewered combination of olive, anchovy and pickled pepper that is a staple of bars in San Sebastián and Bilbao – alongside a menu of Basque dishes from Bar Kroketa.

The restaurant’s own stop will focus on croquetas, the dish from which it takes its name. A selection will be available to taste throughout the day, and guests will be invited to vote for their favourite, with the winner named the Pintxo-Pote People’s Champion. The format is designed to encourage guests to linger and graze rather than eat a single sitting, because in the Basque Country, one doesn’t just go to one bar: one goes to several.

Live Basque music will run throughout the afternoon, with the organisers aiming to reproduce the atmosphere of a Saturday spent bar-hopping in the Basque Country’s two largest cities.

Entry to the festival is free and includes a welcome glass of cider for those who book in advance. Additional food and drink will be available to purchase on the day. Walk-ins will be admitted, although they will not receive the complimentary cider, and advance booking is therefore recommended.

Bar Kroketa is located at 36 Broadgate Circle, EC2M 2QS, in the Broadgate development between Liverpool Street and Moorgate – an area whose bars and restaurants draw largely from the surrounding office population during the week, making a Saturday event something of a departure for the site.

Food Desk

For further information and tickets reservation, visit Bar Kroketa’s dedicated webpage here.