Have I helped ruin San Sebastian?

Hi there everyone, and welcome to another edition of the Food + Travel Edit. This week I'm back in Australia, recovering from a huge Spanish adventure, and looking back on an incident that truly shocked me while I was staying in San Sebastian, my old home, and provoked some hard questions. Jess has been busy cooking up a storm too, and you'll be able to throw her creation together in a matter of minutes. As ever, thanks so much for your support, it means a huge amount.

The suggestion seemed like a good one, to me at least. I’ll meet you at Antonio Bar, I told my mate Dan. About 11am, so we can grab a tortilla.

I’ve met Dan at Antonio around this time of day every time I’ve visited San Sebastian over the last few years. The bar is famous for its tortilla, a traditional Spanish egg dish that at Antonio is done with highly caramelised onions and capsicum, giving it a distinctly rich, unctuous feel, and I’m always keen to have a slice when I’m in the city.

But Dan messaged me back: maybe we could go to the Old Town instead?

It’s wild to hear a local suggest visiting the Old Town instead of calling into a bar outside it. The Old Town is always busy with tourists, always annoying to try to get into your favourite spots even at 11am when most places haven’t even opened yet.

But there’s a thing I hadn’t realised about Antonio, a change that has been wrought just in the last year: it’s become incredibly popular. It was always a hit, always well known among locals, but now it’s gone viral, it’s become a destination in its own right, and there’s a long queue out the front every single morning.

I had to see this for myself. Last year Dan and I walked straight in and grabbed a spot at the bar. This year I strolled past Antonio just before 11am and there, as predicted, was the queue, at least 40 people long, stretching out the front door and down the block.

A waiter was outside corralling everyone, taking orders, letting people know how long the wait would be.

What. The. Hell.

A line like this is highly unusual in San Sebastian, and it’s an issue. The local paper, El Diario Vasco, wrote a story about it recently, discussing the issue of overtourism and overcrowding.

So I walked over to the Old Town, where a local chef friend had recommended a different bar to visit for tortilla, one the tourist hordes don’t yet know about. On my way I passed Arrandegi Kalea, a street that’s home to another of my favourite establishments, Bar Nestor. And I saw something else: another huge queue.

Maybe 100 people this time, snaking all the way down the street and out into the courtyard by the old fish market. Nestor doesn’t even open until 12.30pm. These people were queuing up more than an hour, and even when it opened most of them would wait at least an hour more, to try the tortilla at Nestor, and maybe the steak.

This is not the San Sebastian I know, it’s not the city I used to live in. It’s always been busy, particularly leading into summer, but it’s never been like this, the concentration of tourists at particular bars forming long queues down the street.

I haven’t eaten at Nestor in several years now because of the lines. I’m not going to wait for hours. But now Antonio Bar is off the list too, because that tortilla is good, but it’s not 45-minutes-in-a-queue good.

What has happened in San Sebastian? And more to the point, have I played a part in this?

You have to examine this when you work in media, when you have a voice in a national mass market and you have modest influence on social media. What was my role in this? And is it necessarily wrong?

Modern media tends to encourage hyper-fixation on just a few attractions, a few locations, a few dishes or a few experiences. Foodie influencers with huge followings, the likes of Topjaw and Eating With Tod, have swung through San Sebastian in the past 12 months and featured both Antonio and Nestor prominently.

There are plenty of places to get a tortilla and a steak in San Sebastian. But these two have become darlings of social media and then the tourist masses, each Instagram and TikTok mention feeding another mention and another wave of visitors as everyone seeks to attain the bucket-list experiences set by others.

Over at Bar Desy, a classic, family-run joint I've always loved, the “txuleta burger” – a very rare beef burger with a mayonnaise-based sauce – has started getting traction with big social media influencers, even though I don’t think it’s even the best dish on their menu. At a restaurant close by, run by friends of mine, a single entrée has become so popular that tourists have started booking a table (reserved for the whole night) just to order one dish and leave.

I’ve played a small part in this. I’ve been visiting San Sebastian for years now, and posted about it on social media. I love Bar Desy and have tried to steer more tourists away from the Old Town and into this friendly little craft beer joint in Gros. I’ve posted numerous times raving about the tortilla at Antonio and the steak at Nestor because I genuinely love them and enjoy sharing good things.

But are they now ruined? Is San Sebastian ruined?

I don’t begrudge the bars their success at all. Tito and Nestor at Bar Nestor are great people and I wish them all the best. Gorka and his dad Jose at Bar Desy are also amazing people who deserve to do well. The Antonio guys are always friendly and kind.

But I won’t go to Antonio if I have to line up, as I’m sure most locals don’t anymore. The same for Nestor – it’s a great bar, but there are better steaks in the city. There are amazing tortillas elsewhere.

San Sebastian is changing in a way that seems inevitable, given its riches. Tourist numbers are increasing and spreading throughout the year, rather than just coming in waves in summer. Social media is encouraging hyper-obsession with just a few dishes at a few bars that make overtourism so obvious.

It’s shocking to see, but it’s also good news for you, the discerning traveller. Because there are plenty of great venues that still don’t have viral appeal. For subscribers to this newsletter, I’ll share a few in the coming weeks.

RECIPE OF THE WEEK

Do you love noodles? Are you feeling lazy? Then this recipe is for you. It’s a dish Jess calls “Nongshim Dan-Dan”, because it’s a mash-up of Korean packet noodles and iconic Szechuan dan-dan noodles, a creamy, spicy, sesame-based dish. All you’ll need is a packet of Nongshim noodles (available at your local duopoly) and a few Asian sauces and pastes. This whole thing will come together in about 10 minutes, and is so goddamn delicious. Plus, this video is packed with tips and tricks for freezer and cupboard staples. Drop us a comment below if you try it, we would love to hear what you think.

THINGS I’M LOVING THIS WEEK

• The UAE and Qatar are open! DFAT has finally downgraded these key air hubs from “Do not travel” to “Reconsider your need to travel”, meaning you’ll be covered by insurance if you choose to fly through there. Happy days.
• Australians also have a new option for getting to Europe: the Chinese carrier Juneyao, which began flying out of Sydney and Melbourne a few years ago, now has connections to Athens, with an included stopover in Shanghai.
• Is Melbourne really Australia’s best airport? In my Traveller column this week I’m ranking our nation’s airports, best to worst. And Melbourne isn’t at the top…
• This very sincere and lovely reel about a daytrip to Woy Woy shows how ridiculous we in the West usually are with our fetishisation of other countries and cultures.

THINGS I’M NOT LOVING

• Just booked a restaurant in Sydney that has a minimum beverage spend on a Friday and Saturday night - $60 per diner. And if you add any food upgrades to your set menu it won’t count towards the booze. Are we all OK with this?
• I understand why restaurateurs want to open steakhouses: they’re popular and they require almost no menu development. But surely Sydney and Melbourne have reached peak steakhouse?
• Hotels with inadequate bathroom privacy. No one (well, almost no one) wants to listen to their partner drop the kids off while they’re on holiday together.