Cervantes of Spain Restaurant & Tapas Bar, Cranford

The name of Cervantes of Spain honors the author of the 17th-century novel Don Quixote, considered to be one of Spain’s finest writers. The traditions of the Iberian Peninsula are held in high regard throughout the eatery, where flamenco dancers whirl billowing skirts in paintings above Spanish Renaissance–style furniture. At those tables, conversation swells around tapas such as spanish chorizo sautéed in sherry. The heat of traditional, fire-blackened pans continues to cook lobster, scallops, and sausage with saffron rice in Valencia-style paella. Live flamenco and jazz musicians fill the space with the complex rhythms of a tap dancer in a bubble-wrap factory, and open-pit pig roasts fill the outdoor patio with succulent aromas. Glasses clink together, letting the bouquets of Spanish wines blend and slices of fruit drift slowly down through six types of sangria.