October 2021
After I moved to the safe house on Perry Place, NE in Washington yet AGAIN with the ever forbearing PM and DV at the end of the Coronavirus Pandemic, I quickly reassumed the habit of taking very long daily walks. After I bored of DC, I started to branch out. I realized I had never explored much of Alexandria, so I slowly walked all of its streets to the river and back (on the river side of the railway tracks). On one sunny day, early on, I discovered "Barca".
What made Barca unique was that it was literally built on pilings out over the Potomac. That meant everyone had a river view. On my first visit I saw they served Bloody Marys and had an extensive selection. BMs are one of my favorite drinks, if made correctly. Barca also had a long bar and a crew of friendly bartenders. I started to go there once a week for Bloody Marys (and maybe a G&T) with a plate of tapas. Barca supposedly served Spanish cuisine, but having spent boatloads of vacation time in Spain, I was suspicious if the chef had ever even been there? The tapas was good - it was just dissimilar to anything I had ever tasted in any region of Spain (and I will be honest, I almost saw the entire country).
The name itself means "ship" but it was also a play on words for the football club from Barcelona which is often referred to as "Barca" (soft "c") as well. Whatever the case, non-original tapas aside, I loved it and was treated extremely well by the staff. I ate my way through their tapas menu and found some favorites. I tasted all their Bloody Marys and hit on the best one for me, too. The staff were mostly newly arrived immigrants doing a job that earned a fair amount of money (tips) and did not require a lot of experience. The first bartender I met was Maximilian, a Ukrainian. We had many discussions about Ukraine, tragically all before the Russian invasion. He eventually moved on and a string of others followed literally from all over. I enjoyed talking to them and trying to understand their experience as new immigrants to the USA.
I also met interesting customers at the bar. The funniest was meeting a Mexican couple who decided to try it because it was "Spanish cuisine". Like me, they realized the only thing "Spanish" about Barca was the name itself. They were wealthy and educated and rolled with it, but still I sensed their disappointment. I wondered how many people arrived at the restaurant thinking "oh great, a real Spanish Tapas restaurant" only to discover it was the American version. For me, it didn't matter. I was a regular at Barca and the food was overall pretty damn tasty.
I was amazed at Barca's pluckiness. Building a totally outdoor restaurant over the Potomac in hopes of it being open all year was optimistic. As it turns out, the weather in 2021 was mild at least up through Thanksgiving. After that, however, it got brutal. I went a few times on sunny December days, and that cold wind blowing off the Potomac was a killer. The poor staff had to stand around and freeze all day in heavy winter jackets - definitely not well-thought-out. They did have a small landside location (with another, larger kitchen), but the table space was tiny. I am not sure what happened with my "new favorite bar" since I left to work in Bangladesh. I loved their concept, however. After the pandemic, al fresco dining felt a whole lot "safer" than being cooped up indoors.
I think I will always have a need to be a "regular" somewhere. There is something very appealing to going to a restaurant, bar , or coffee shop and being "known". I have been doing that unawaredly for a large portion of my life. Perhaps it is a way to unwind, almost like going "home". A familiar space, familiar menu, and familiar staff - there is nothing that can go wrong (well, most of the time). I only need to show up, have some nice conversation (or not), and feel relaxed.
I strongly identify with the Jack Nickelson character in the film "As Good As It Gets" - a man who needed to eat at a certain restaurant served by a specific waitress. I only hoped that I was more likeable than his character! Whenever a favorite place closed down and the staff found other jobs, I became seriously depressed. I remember when Java Beans [see: Java Beans], my favorite cafe in Abha, closed I honestly thought my life there might have become more difficult. (It didn't - I luckily found a new place).
So, I was strangely connected to a "floating" restaurant on the Potomac for about 8 months in 2021. That connection helped me transition out of the pandemic and onward.