I have a pretty cool dad.

He’s so cool that I didn’t write his tribute for Father’s Day until the day after Father’s Day because I wanted to prolong the celebration.

Well, that and because I wanted to draw extra attention to him.

And because I was too busy grilling to write up a thoughtful post.

Anyway, one of the best things about living and working in the general vicinity of my family is that I get to share not only holidays with them, but lots of ordinary days as well.

That just makes it more fun to celebrate special days like Father’s Day, though.  Breaks up the routine a little bit, if you will.

Being that I’m the exciting one that still lives in the city, while the rest of my family is in the burbs, I took it upon myself to use my extensive knowledge of good restaurants to arrange a special little brunch for my parents.

And by arrange, I mean pick a place and make a reservation.

BLAM!

We went to Cafe Ba Ba Reeba, which is one of my favorite tapas restaurants in town- and that’s sayin’ something.

(source)

I could see the skepticism flash across my parents’ faces when I told them that I had made a brunch reservation for garlicy, spicy, Spanish tapas.

Luckily, they have faith in their daughter.  I wouldn’t steer them wrong.

Ba Ba Reeba offers both traditional breakfast dishes like omelettes and waffles on their brunch menu, as well as some interesting breakfast tapas and a selection of their dinner menu tapas.

We went to town.

That little guy back there is a waffle-battered chicken stick.  My favorite.  Chicken sausage, waffle-battered and drizzled with maple syrup.

Stop it now.

This is one of their pintxos (ie, teeny-tiny tapas), so it was only one bite.  I wanted about 15 of them.

Hash brown eggs benedict.

The poached egg is on a hash brown.  Need I say more?

Brick egg, crispy crepe with cheese and tomatoes.

I didn’t know what a brick egg was, so I Googled it.  Turns out it’s just a term for a regional French egg specialty dish, and this is their Spanish take on it.  It was essentially a soft boiled egg with cheese inside a crispy phyllo shell and a sort of tomato confit on the side.  It was uncommon and really good!

We also shared the goat cheese baked in tomato sauce (standard), the beef skewers with horseradish cream and caramelized red onion, and the crab+shrimp dip with piquillo peppers.

Yum, delicious and get outta town.

I think I’m sort of obsessed with the idea of tapas for brunch.  Seeing as I can never decide between a breakfast item or a lunch item, nevermind choosing between sweet and savory, this gives me a little taste of everything and I am a happy girl.

And my dad said he was a happy papa.

In his words, there wasn’t a single dud among the dishes.

That’s right.  No duds for my dad.

Happy Father’s Day, Papa!  You are the patatas to my bravas.