Opening a restaurant—especially in a cutthroat culinary landscape like the Bay Area—is an exercise in vulnerability.

Opening a restaurant dedicated to your homeland, though, goes beyond just vulnerability. It’s “like taking one of your organs out, putting it on the table, and letting people punch it over and over,” says David Linares.

Inside Macarena in Palo Alto(Alvaro Valiente)

The tender body part under assault by the proverbial fists of Bay Area eaters is the Peninsula’s Spanish newcomer, Macarena. The restaurant—which uses traditional recipes and top-shelf ingredients to craft classic tapas, hearty paellas, and seasonal specialties—is exactly the kind of place Linares and his business partner/wife, Elizabeth Reviriego, have always wanted to open.

The chefs they’ve partnered with for their first U.S. eatery have played a major role in realizing that dream. Both Toni Santanach, who hails from Barcelona’s celebrated Els Pinxus and Hoffman, and Sergio Box, “the best paella man in Spain” from La Perla de Jávea in the town of Jávea, have not only Michelin credentials but a collection of other prestigious awards attached to their names.

Together, the quartet has molded Macarena—named after a neighborhood in Seville, the birthplace of flamenco—into a restaurant as vibrant and elegant as the dance itself. On a night less than three weeks after their grand opening, the space is alive, respiring rhythmically in time with the open kitchen at its back.

My table sits beneath the branches of an olive tree (Spain, olives, olive oil—you get it), with a gallery wall of fruit and vegetable paintings in gothic tones on one side, and on the other, an raised Art Nouveau-style salon with vintage green-patterned wallpaper and a roaring fireplace. Designers Adean Studios gave the front bar mirrored paneling and fringed light fixtures, while in the main dining room, they created the illusion of a garden patio with bistro-style rattan chairs and velvet banquettes in soft creams and caramels. Geometric wooden cutouts at ceiling level subtly define the different spaces.

A cocktail from Spanish bartending royalty, Cristian Hornos(Alvaro Valiente)

Macarena enlisted Cristian Hornos, one of Spain’s best cocktail crafters (literally—he’s been ranked among the country’s top bartenders for six years running) to bring a little swashbuckling adventure to the drinks menu: a take on a margarita made with house-extracted blue cheese essence (the Agave Blue); a tapas classic in liquid form, the Melón con Jamón, made with Iberian ham fat-washed fino sherry and cantaloupe cordial; and a riff on a bloody Mary featuring fat-washed whiskey, fino sherry, cherry tomatoes, kimchi, and watermelon foam.

I try a couple of the fruitier options—the Macarena Gin, made with thyme and rosemary oleo saccharum, fresh raspberry juice, and grapefruit soda, and the Fruto del Amor, made with dark and white rum, fresh banana juice, and passion fruit, sprinkled with nutmeg—both bright, Mediterranean-inspired sips that mercifully avoid the trap of overly sweet poolside drinks. Four styles of house sangria and some intriguing non-alcoholic options, including one made with Sichuan pepper (the Flor de Maracuyá), round out the bar’s offerings.

The tapas menu features familiar favorites, prepared with careful attention to detail and, in some cases, a bit of imagination. Instead of standard roasted potatoes, for example, the papas bravas are made by transforming potato batter into crispy, airy churros. In the roasted tomato salad, ruby jewels luxuriate in a bath of almond ajoblanco cream. The calamari with salsa Mary was fished out of the Monterey Bay that morning, while the flauta bread for the pan con tomate is imported from a baker in Girona because they couldn’t find an authentic local substitute.

(It may be worth noting that, as reported by Eater San Francisco, Linares and Reviriego's previous place of employment, Teleferic Barcelona, filed a lawsuit accusing the couple of stealing recipes and client data prior to the opening of Macarena—a claim which they vehemently deny.)

Roasted tomato salad with almond ajoblanco(Alvaro Valiente)

Paella, offered in a rainbow of varieties—including negra, with squid ink and seafood, and vegan—is one of Macarena’s must-tries. Always a surefire hit with me, I opt for a style I’ve never had before: the rossejat de fideuá, made with Xábia-style noodles, squid, and shrimp. Slightly crispy on the bottom and served with tangy aioli, the short strands of pasta lend a savory, seafood-infused, almost Asian quality to the dish.

If paella isn’t your bag, Macarena offers several other mains worth considering, including cachopo Asturiano—breaded beef fillet stuffed with Iberian ham and melted cheese—and the catch of the day from Half Moon Bay, served with Ibérico ham sauce. Their vegetable dishes are just as impressive. Initially disappointed when I have to substitute the confit artichoke flowers (they’re out for the night) with roasted calçot—baby leeks caramelized by heat and drizzled in romesco and hollandaise sauce—I quickly change my mind. A take on a Catalonian dish that traditionally uses a giant Spanish onion instead of leeks, the normally fibrous allium melts in my mouth.

Most people would probably be thrilled to find tiramisu on the dessert menu—this one made with a traditional coffee sponge cake from Catalonia. Personally, I can’t stand the stuff, but for the sake of research, I take a bite… then another… and another. “This tiramisu earned our pastry chef a Michelin star,” Linares says, and honestly, I can see why. The saquets de crema (crispy puff pastry filled with a luscious, melted ice cream-like vanilla bean filling and served with warm chocolate dipping sauce) are equally fantastic and, regrettably, disappear far too soon.

“I just want people to leave here with a smile on their faces,” Linares had told me shortly after arriving. Walking out, grinning ear to ear, his wish, it seems, was my command.

// Macarena is open Monday through Thursday from 11:30am to 9:30pm, Friday from 11:30am to 10:30pm, Saturday from 11am to 10:30pm, and Sunday from 11am to 9:30pm; 420 Ramona St. (Palo Alto), macarenarestaurant.com

Cocotte de rabo de toro, buñuelos de queso, and paella de pulpo(Alvaro Valiente)