Wild Thing Natural Wines

There’s a fabulous little wine bar in Cabanas de Tavira that serves natural wines–which is alcoholic without the additives and preservations, so your hangover can be averted. We’ve worked our way through quite a few of their natural wines, ciders and beers. The hosts are an engaging young couple with a dream, and work really hard to make their customers welcome while extolling the virtues of their natural approach to bar keeping.

It’s the type of bar with a relaxed atmosphere, so patrons sit for a while. (Back when I was waitressing, we’d call these type of customers “campers”, because they looked like they’d settled in for the night).

Campers are ideal sketching subjects, as you know they’re going to be there for a while. I captured the bar’s exterior and a few customer with my pen and watercolours.

The bar’s owner asked for the sketch – but it was a quick and dirty sketch and I didn’t want it framed and on display in the restaurant for perpetuity. So I took a photo of the scene and sketched from the photo back at the studio.

Featured in East Algarve Magazine

I had this new version framed and brought it in for her. Little did I know she was going to insist that The East Algarve magazine include in the 4-page article they did on Wild Thing.

This glossy magazine is extremely well known in this area. It’s published monthly and one of the standard features is a restaurant spotlight section, as well as a featured artist of the month. My goal raise my profile so that one day I can fill that spot (the artist, not the restaurant!)

You can pick up a copy from the majority of businesses in the area (it’s free, supported by advertising), so be on the look out for it each month. The articles are informative and the local photography is captivating. But you can also access all historical editions on their website.

East Algarve magazine is a great read. And I love discovering local restaurants, artists, and events that are happening at this end of the Algarve.