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Bar Tozino Spanish bodega opens at Maltby Street Market

bartozinoHis jamon stall's already one of the key draws at Maltby Street Market and now Chuse Valero of Tozino is expanding with the opening of Bar Tozino in one of the arches there. Hot Dinners grabbed some time with him to find out what you can expect.

So what's the deal with Bar Tozino?

"We want to be a unique place in UK - with Hams from spain, especially Iberico and also we want to be quite simple, we have a lot of places in spain like that selling ham, charcuterie, cheese and almonds and olives. We choose all our hams from Spain - we have very competitive prices and the quality of the ham we have is unique in London at the moment."

It's a multipurpose space then?

"It's not just a bar or restaurant - we also want to be a workshop about ham - training people that want to start carving ham at home and be involved in all of the jamon culture. We are a school teaching other people, we are a theatre showing how to carve - we are also a shop - we sell the ham to take away and enjoy at your home and we're a bar. Or, if you want to enjoy a plate of ham with us with a glass of wine, that is perfect too. Our place will be more than a tapas bar - more like a place that in Spain is called a bodega. Quite simple but everything you're going to try is very, very good."

What about wine?

The wine is quite tricky - at the moment we have just one red and one white - both are both from Rioja - we've got Manzanilla that works really well with the Iberica or the Terujel (which is a family business), almonds and olives and a beer from Spain. But we're thinking of offering more sherries - we'd like to pair charcuterie and cheeses with sherries, maybe we'll introduce more like a Montillado or Oloroso or a PX.

And what's your background?

"Have you got an hour? [Laughs] I was working as a carver in Barcelona when Monika Linton from Brindisa saw me and wanted to bring the first master carver to London to Tapas Brindisa. So I worked there for a few years and then moved to Harrods to their Iberico Ham House. Bar Tozino is me and my friend Zac Fangal Rock, a Welshman I trained at Brindisa. It's a good formula - British and Spanish together."

When do you open?

We've actually been open the past two weekends, but our official opening is the 26th.

Bar Tozino opens officially at Maltby Street Market on 26 October 2012 and will be open every Saturday from 9-3pm initially although they're waiting for a licence to open on Thursday and Friday nights. Find out more, follow them @bartozino

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