For several years, Boulder residents have been able to experience the excellence of chef Eduardo Valle Lobo at local fine-dining cornerstone Frasca Food and Wine. With the opening of Casa Juani, located at 901 Pearl St., they’ll now be able to experience the food that lives in Valle Lobo’s heart, the flavors that shaped his youth in Spain.
He and his wife, fellow former Frasca chef Kelly Jeun, have tapped into the traditional Spanish dishes his mother, his “north star,” would prepare day in and day out for the family, naming their first solo restaurant in her honor. The 5,300-square-foot space is built around the concept of a marisquería, a traditional seafood and shellfish bar where they prepare raw offerings such as sea urchin and razor clams.
Valle Lobo emphasized the importance of seafood in Spanish cuisine and the variety of ingredients available from the waters surrounding Spain — the Atlantic Ocean, the Mediterranean Sea and the Cantabrian Sea, a body of water north of Spain and west of France…