Michael Mascha, Las Vegas, October 2022
Jaleo, located at the Cosmopolitan in Las Vegas, focuses on the regional flavors of Spain by featuring tapas, savory paellas, and a wide selection of the finest Spanish cheeses and cured meats on the extensive menu. This is a noisy and lively restaurant, and José is our hero in how he is using food to empower communities across the globe.
Water available at Jaleo
To our surprise, unlike in the more upscale Bazaar Meat by José Andrés across town, Jaleo is serving a Spanisch water. Unfortunately, the choice is only still and sparkling, but we ordered both as we like Sant Aniol, and the water just won an award at the TASTE & DESIGN AWARDS in Los Angeles in 2022. The water feels special, curated, not pervasive, and selected for the purpose and the restaurant theme. With a Medium Minerality, the water fits perfectly for many dishes, but only a water menu would truly allow us to pair water with the many dishes on the menu. Even with the selection of the dishes we sampled, we noticed the absence of variety.
It is especially noticeable if you see many wines by the glass and hundreds of wines on the wine list. Where are the choices for people that don't want to imbibe alcohol?
Here is what we ordered at Jaleo:
Water Menu for Jaleo:
The Spanisch Collection
The waters in the Spanisch Collection show a wide variety of Minerality from Low to Very High and are available in Still, Sparkling, and Natural Carbonated.
Water Sommelier suggestion for the dishes above:
The Crispy Bread with Tomato would be best paired with Aigua Vilajuïga.
Bagels & Lox Cone would benefit from a Low Minerality water, and I would Choose the Pineo Full Moon edition or the Sant Aniol in the sparkling version.
The Low Minerality and slightly acidic Mondariz in its Still version, would be perfect for the Cod Fritters.
Sant Aniol Sparkling with the Fried Squid and with the Black Ink Alioli.
The decadent and creamy Potato Salad would be best paired with a Medium Minerality slightly alkaline water like Artesian 22.
And Vichy Catalan is, of course, the water for the meat, in this case, the Flat Iron Steak.
Michael Mascha, Las Vegas, October 2022
