Casa Montaña

This guide to Casa Montana in Valencia starts with a simple instruction: touch the brick and tile in front of you, because none of it is original. It traces the tavern back to 1836, when it began as a barraca, a reed-and-thatch fisherman's hut on the Cabanyal shore, with Ramona, the founders' daughter, pouring wine there after 1861. You will hear why the owners tore the hut down in 1880 to raise solid brick walls, and follow the string of owners after them, from a widow to a decades-long tenant couple to the Garcia family who took over in 1994. Lean on the bar and think about who stood there before you.