"La Cave del Rey"

My new favorite place...a hidden gem...a tiny, french restaurant called LA CAVE DEL REY.

I found this place a year and a half ago, when I first got here. I remember my little brother and I had just had a big argument with our mother and our big sister about how we weren't doing anything productive with our lives :-/ In the middle of the heated conversation, I needed to get out, so I did...

I got out of the house and started walking and walking, aimlessly. Very few times, if ever, had I walked around the streets of my residence. I began walking fast, as fast as my heart was pounding. But as I started to walk around the unknown, I started getting distracted, so my heart slowed down, and so did my steps. And it is when I slowed down that I began to appreciate little details that I'd never noticed before. I even started to enjoy the moment...it helped me forget the argument that I'd just walked out from.

In this moment of discoveries, I noticed a little blackboard hanging from a wine color ceiling...it read, in chalk written words, La Cave del Rey-RESTAURANT FRANCES. When I got closer, I looked inside what looked like a little cave, through wine color, translucent curtains, and I saw something beautiful...I rang the bell, "I HAVE GOT TO GO IN!" What is this place?! A slim, mulata girl greets me, opens the iron gates and lets me in. I was mesmerized...............

.......a roofed terrace with a few white cloth covered tables; green, wooden chairs; random, antique findings scattered everywhere (lamps, frames, dressers, mirrors, vases); frescos painted on the ceiling, as if you just entered an old, european church; polished cement floor.....then, there was an entrance to an even tinier part of the restaurant, where it really looked like a cave, and where they have their wine reserve, the bar, the kitchen, the bathroom (behind a wine color curtain) and just 2 tables! It is such an enchanting place........


Well, to go on with the story, I went in, sat at the bar and ordered a glass of wine (wine always makes things better). There was no one but me at the restaurant, so the girl served my wine and stood right there in front of me. She saw my teary eyes and asked if I was ok. Never had I thought I'd want to talk to a complete stranger, especially at a such emotional state, but for some odd reason, I did...I started venting out with her and let me tell you, it was fabulous. Then, she began telling me her life story, which made me feel a whole lot better about mine ;) (what a screwed up life!).

Well, I must have spent at least 4 hours in there--it was early afternoon when I arrived, and left when the night had taken over. After a couple of wine glasses and a whole lot of dialogues, I left (just so my family wouldn't get too worried, but if it were for me, I think I would've stayed a couple of hours more in this oasis....).

Here's the tiny back part of the restaurant, where the wine reserve is. I am sitting here with my clarinet professor and my cuban, clarinet friend. We had lunch at La Cave almost every day he was here! The lunch is fabulous and affordable...but dinner is kind of pricey :-/ Can't be too perfect!