Store manager Karen Squires [front] and second-in-command Karen Wright hold down the fort and while you shouldn't ask Squires a thing about Rock or Pop (she hates either), she's a deep source of information on Flamenco, Galician and Latin music and happy to play you any of the 274 CDs she has stored in a carousel-style Sony CD changer that holds a total of 400 and is thus subject to stock-ups each time yours truly visits and asks Karen to open another sealed copy she hasn't loaded yet..

Of course, if I wasn't so damn single-minded to hit the sizable and very specialized music selection in the back, I'd pay more attention to the veritable gold mine of edible and cooking-related offerings stocked throughout - but that's Ivette's department. I'm clutching my dream lizard and am thus off in the ozone of music-loving pursuits. Once I've raided the CD selections on tap, I shall regroup with my
better half who'll be waiting with a pile of books and sundry sweets at the register. In our household, the responsibilities are cleanly divided - the man worries about the important stuff and what strange music to add to the bulging home collection while the woman keeps the stomach going and assures that the resident library doesn't just house owner's manuals but actually pretends at some culture (though I must admit, reading is Ivette's department as well - I just enjoy being surrounded by books which make me look well-read and lend themselves as an armchair-traveler writer's resource). Can you say fishing expedition?
The fishing bear Zuni fetish is an amulet for abundance, among other things, and our excuse for practicing a certain amount of consumption. If anyone pulls us over for going too fast, our well-practiced retort is "the bear made us do it". Keeping a straight face with that is quite a bear...


But that the Spanish Table is quite the mecca for gastronomical sophisticates is no bull - er, buffalo. Even the chef of the famous Geronimo restaurant is known to shop here for paella pans and certain direct-import ingredients not to be found elsewhere.