Pintxo Crawl on Calle Barrenkale
Gernika is not Bilbao or San Sebastián, and that is precisely the point: the pintxo bars on Calle Barrenkale and the surrounding old-town streets serve the same outstanding produce at half the tourist-district price, to a crowd that is almost entirely local.
The Bars to Know
Bar Zallo Barri on Calle Juan Calzada is the most celebrated address in town, known for its grilled txuleta (bone-in rib steak from old dairy cows) and an extensive Rioja Alavesa wine list. Book ahead for a sit-down meal, but the bar counter pintxos are available walk-in and are exceptional — try the anchovy-and-pepper montadito.
Bolina on Calle Barrenkale is a more casual, standing-room bar beloved by locals for its txakoli (the local slightly sparkling white wine, poured from height to aerate it) and rotating pintxos of salt cod, wild mushroom and Gernika pepper. The peppers — small, mild, blistered in olive oil and salted — are the town's edible signature and appear on every bar menu.
The Gernika Pepper — A Local Legend
The Pimiento de Gernika is a protected variety of small green pepper grown in the Urdaibai valley and it deserves its own paragraph. Fried whole in olive oil until the skin blisters and then showered with coarse salt, it is served as a tapa in virtually every bar in town. The vast majority are mild; one in twenty is fiercely hot — Basques call this the 'lottery' and consider it part of the experience.
You can buy fresh Gernika peppers at the Monday market directly from the farmers who grow them. They are excellent cooked at home the same evening, though the bar version, eaten standing up with a glass of txakoli, is hard to beat.
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