The Repsol Guide team of experts has toured the Valencian Community in search of this list made up of 62 ‘Soletes’ of which 30 are in Valencia, 21 in Alicante and 11 in Castellón. The ‘Soletes’ consist of restaurants, café’s, terraces and other establishments across the three provinces – Alicante, Castellón and Valencia. For the first time, the Region of Valencia has hosted this awards ceremony and ‘Mediterránea Gastrónoma’, the most important fair of the sector in the Mediterranean, has been chosen as the setting to recognise the Valencian ‘Soletes’ of 2022.
‘Soletes de barrio’ are those appetising places where you can have a drink or a bite to eat at an affordable price, places you would recommend to a friend and that you can find both in the city centre and in the neighbourhoods. Authentic places, whether modern or traditional, where you can find cafés, bars, restaurants, ice cream parlours, fast food places, market bars, terraces with views, wine bars or cider bars that locals and travellers like to go to.
The event was attended by the Secretary of Tourism of the ‘Generalitat de Valencia’, Fransec Colomer, the Director of Guía Repsol, María Ritter and the Director of ‘Mediterránea Gastrónoma’, Alejandro Roda, who presented a commemorative plate, with the image of the ‘Solete’, to all the award winners.
The Regional Secretary for Tourism, Francesc Colomer, stressed that this initiative, “is not only a great opportunity to position our community as a top gastronomic tourist destination, but we are also thrilled by the recognition that the philosophy of the ‘Soles’ and ‘Soletes’ represents for the wealth of talent that exists in many parts of our territory”. In this sense, he pointed out that, “identifying them, visualising them and dignifying them is a duty”. He goes on to stress how, “this is a recognition of the professionals, restaurateurs and their families who generate happiness and well-being in times that are especially difficult for everyone”.
During the presentation of this award, the Director of Guía Repsol, María Ritter said that, “today is a very special day because the Soletes are establishments that show a lot of drive and emotion, they are authentic businesses that are not usually the focus of the gastronomic guides. That is why for Guía Repsol, the Soletes are a very special qualification, not only because they are the youngest recognition in our family but also because of their freshness, because they make you smile and because they are the places where the locals go and which our friends would recommend to us. Today the community has shone a little brighter, a reflection of the fact that the Valencian community is a gastronomic and tourist power, which is not only reflected in the Soles, but also in the number of Soletes, which, although today we are giving the award to the 62 Soletes of 2022, the region has 185 Soletes spread over Valencia, Alicante and Castellón”.
The ‘Soletes’ Repsol Guide has now been awarded five times, with a total of more than 2,700 ‘Soletes’ spread throughout Spain. A team of gastronomy experts spread throughout Spain have selected and discovered beach bars and terraces to savour the summer; roadside ‘Soletes’ to stop off at during a car journey; autumn ‘Soletes’ to discover places to try the daily stews and bars and, finally, the neighbourhood ‘Soletes’ with which we have added more than
300 new ‘Soletes’ to this list and which seek to put the spotlight on places outside the usual city circuits.
Report by Shemaiah Rose
Article copyright 24/7 Valencia
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