In July 1941, Salvador and María Baydal opened a forty-square-metre bar on a rock by the harbour, with three thousand pesetas and a permit. Eighty-five Julys later, the third generation still serves fish from the same market, looking up at the same Peñón.
1960s · Bar Baydal beneath the PeñónToday · The same house, Avinguda del Port 10
Arròs del senyoret — seafood rice with everything peeled for you — first came out of this kitchen. Today it is Calpe's official signature dish, served all along the coast. We still make it the original way: rockfish stock, salmorreta, and shellfish from the bay.
Calpe's fish market is steps from our door. Every afternoon at 5pm the auction decides what we fry and stew that evening: whiting, red mullet, Calpe prawns, baby sole. Whatever the sea gives that day.
Pulpo a la brasa BaydalGamba de CalpFritura BaydalFlan casero
“I want to try fish I couldn't try anywhere else”
We hear it every week. This is our answer: bay species that hardly ever leave this coast, bought at Calpe's fish auction — fifty metres from our kitchen — and one of the Costa Blanca's first beach bars to cook them the way it's always been done.
Tollos
Marinated, fried school shark: Calpe's oldest tapa, near impossible to find elsewhere.
Bay wedge clams (tellinas)
Delicate steamed clams, from one of the few markets that still land them.
Grilled cuttlefish roe
From the day's catch: no cuttlefish at auction, no roe.
Peix de Calp
Whiting, red mullet and small sole from the 5pm auction, fried to order.
White Calpe prawns
Boiled and served cold — sweet as only this bay produces.