Today marks the start of what we at Londonist would like to call sherry week. And that’s no reference whatsoever to the Spanish post-football celebrations. It is, in fact, the launch of the Tapas Trail by Tio Pepe.
It’s a simple enough concept. Spend £4.50 or more on tapas at participating restaurants and get a glass of the classic fino free. Restaurants get a bit more trade, Tio Pepe gets a bit of publicity and we get a free drink - everyone’s happy.
Tio Pepe have also put together two tapas trails encouraging Londoners to bar-crawl in the same way that just about everyone does in ol’ Espanola. The tube-inspired Northern Trail leads from Camino and Bar Pepito at Kings Cross via Moro to Pinchito near Old Street. The Central Trail takes in Barrafina, Fino, Baricca, Iberica and then Pinchito’s West End restaurant, focused around the Fitzrovia area.
Of course, you could always make your own trail up by mixing and matching these restaurants. Visit one for a bite to eat and your free sherry, or do the rounds and try all nine if you think you're up to it.
We’d love it if London could catch on to the sherry crawl idea, and we’d like to think it’s another step towards sherry being officially cool (the first being the opening of dedicated sherry shack Bar Pepito in case you missed it). Most of all, though, we love that we can say with sincerity that we’re going on the Northern line for four glasses of sherry and know that there’s nothing Boris can do about it...
Visit the Tio Pepe Tapas Trail website for all the details and to download the trail map, then get going.
