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On July 10^th, Vancouver, Canada’s Propaganda Coffee will become a tavern very much like one of those that can be found at the old part of any Basque town or village for a day. Chef Jefferson Álvarez will use Txotx Basque Imports’ products to bring “a taste from the Basque Country” to the city. “My duty as a chef is to educate people in different kinds of foods,” he told EuskalKultura.com. “We’re very excited about this event,” added Kelly Chomat, CEO of Txotx Basque Imports.

Vancouver, Canada. A bar full of small bites of tortilla, mussels with txorizo, sardines with Basque sauce, serrano, Piquillo peppers, cod… And leaning against the bar, people chatting, while holding a txakoli or a sagardo (cider) glass in one hand and a pintxo in the other. That’s a common image at the old part of any Basque town or village that will be reproduced at the Propaganda Coffee, in Vancouver, Canada, on Friday July the 10^th, from 8pm “till late,” as organizers announced.

Chef Jefferson Álvarez and the Canadian company Txotx Basque Imports teamed up to bring “a taste of the Basque Country” to the city. Álvarez was born in Caracas, Venezuela and grew up in Isla Margarita, situated off the northeastern coast of the country, in the Caribbean Sea. But Euskal Herria has a special place in his heart as he went there to train with Arzak and Aduriz, amongst other big names in Basque cuisine and, ever since, “(the Basque Country) is my home away from home,” says he. That’s why when he discovered Txotx Basque Imports he felt he had to do something with them: “My duty as a chef is to educate people in different kinds of foods. Here (in Canada), people tend to disregard canned food when it comes to quality but Basque canned products are of the highest quality.”

Txotx Basque Imports −founded by Kelly Chomat, Shawn Pisio, and Michael Broadbent, after the first two visited Michael in Donostia, where he had moved to, attracted by its charm− sells all kinds of Basque products, from canned peppers to tuna or anchovies, and from a wide variety of Basque cider brands (unsweetened and not-carbonated) to different types of txakoli (a slightly sparkling, very dry white wine with high acidity and low alcohol content). “After our trip to the Basque Country, we couldn’t find the same cider in Canada so we decided to import it ourselves. I quit my job at a travel company and now this is what I do,” explained Chomat.

Only fifty tickets

Regarding the Propaganda Coffee event, Chomat is “very excited” because it will help them “reach more people.” There are only fifty tickets on sale and half of them have already been sold. “We’ll sell all of them,” Alvarez says, with conviction. In fact, it is a pretty good deal: for $75, attendees will be able to have as many pintxos as they want plus two glasses of txakoli and two glasses of Basque cider.

The chef is not familiar with the Basque-Canadian community in Vancouver but would be “very happy” to meet them there: “I’m going to make the pintxos with all the love and respect I have for the Basque culture and I would like them to feel as if they were at a pintxos bar in Donostia.”

Basque products, little by little, are making their way in Canada, especially in Vancouver and Ontario, where over thirty stores and restaurants are already offering Txotx’s foods and wines.

Propaganda Coffee: 209 E. Pender Street, Vancouver
Tickets here