Aqua Resort’s Vino Bar reopens

Stepping inside Aqua Resort Club’s newly reopened Vino Bar last Friday was almost like experiencing a slice of Spain.

With its rebirth, Vino Bar is now a true-to-its-name Spanish bar serving signature tapas and Iberian wines.

Some of the wines that they have straight from Spain are sangre de toro blanco, which is a white wine; and pinord clos de torribas, which is a red wine that uses tempranillo grapes and a crianza, which means it was aged for one year in the barrel.

They also have the cava, which is a counterpart of France’s champagne.

Vino Bar also serves their own versions of sangrias.

“Sangria is a refreshing drink for the whole day, made of wine and fresh juice and comes with slices of fruits,” food and beverage manager Rom Manzon said.

On Friday, guests sampled an array of tapas that included vegetales y bagna cauda, which are vegetable sticks with special dip sauce; huevos rancheros, which is a kind of egg omelet; lengue estopado con chorizo, which is stewed beef ox tongue and sausage; almijas marineras l’avi pau, which is stewed clam with tomato garlic, pork dumpling wrapped in cabbage called farcellets de Sol, and a pork and green pepper turnover of Murcia called pastille de carne y piamentos.

Food and drinks aside, the bar’s ambiente was decidedly Iberian, with Spanish flamenco dancer Ana Gonzales entertaining the crowd with a couple of dances and Spanish songs.

“She is from Spain and is one of the star dancers of one of the most famous flamenco dancing company,” Aqua Resort general manager Kevin Tsurui said.

According to Tsurui, Vino Bar will cater more to the adult members of the community.

“We don’t have any Spanish-themed bar here [in the CNMI] and, as you saw, this is a very quiet-type as opposed to very loud bars in Garapan. Some people like myself don’t like that,” Tsurui said.

“We just want to enjoy good food, good wine, good conversation because some of the places don’t allow you to speak to each other,” he added.

Tsurui said the feedback so far has been very positive.

Acting governor Ralph DLG Torres, some members of the Legislature, government agency officials, and various representatives of the business community were present at the reopening party.

“I appreciate it that important people like that came to our party,” Tsurui said.

He also thanked the community for their support.

“We’ve been through all the changes, the renovations, the beach bar and this bar. But one thing that stays unchanged is, because of the support of all the people who are here tonight, Aqua is still here,” Tsurui said.

“We also celebrated our 26th anniversary. Without their support, we couldn’t have survived. I just wanted to thank all of them for being here tonight and for their continued support throughout the years.”