RESTAURANT REVIEW : Alegria Tapas Bar Needs a Sharper Focus

Alegria, the new tapas bar on Pine Avenue in Long Beach, has a stylishly mad-cap look, as if the alegria--or happiness--in question was the intoxicated, transient giddiness of Pedro Almodovar’s happy endings. A cute, swoopy counter lines a brick wall hung with colorful, cartoonishly framed Miro and Picasso posters. Over the bar, from iron racks, swing skeins of chiles and garlic and whole dry hams--and I mean whole: Each ham still sports a leg and cloven hoof.

On a Saturday night, there’s a Latin band: congas, sax and accordion, plus drum machine, computerized trumpets. We put our names in for a table out on the patio, and take a seat inside. The booming drum bounces off the walls, contradicts our heartbeats. We climb onto stools in an empty curve of the counter and soon are hollering away with our neighbors: Alegria is a fun, friendly place, packed with people drinking sangria from tumblers and sharing the classic small plates of food.

In Spain, people never drink without eating. Legend has it that in Spanish bars, a glass of wine or sherry was once served covered with a small plate of cheese or olives, compliments of the house. These little “lids” or “tapas” have since evolved into a genre of sophisticated, even pricey snacks.

Tapas are small dishes, but they’re not just hors d’oeuvres or finger food: They range from cold cuts to stews, salads to omelettes--anything can be a tapa, so long as it comes in morsel-like portions. Ideally, tapas are ordered casually, one dish at a time over the course of a conversation or evening.

This ideal drinking and snacking process, which can go on for several hours, has its own challenges for a waiter, who must keep track. In Spain, tapas bars have various methods, from chalkboards to the honor system. At Alegria, however, we tended to order one or two dishes (to eat while we were deciding on more) and then, when those dishes came, to order all the rest of the dishes at once. This seems best: Cheerful and helpful as the waiters are when they’re at your table, they can be very hard to spot, especially on busier nights.

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On our first visit, we fell for the platos grande , a platter made from any five tapas chosen from the menu. At $6.95 per person, this was a prudent move, but with so many items crammed onto one plate, it was a bit muddled: salty chunks of marinated cheese and sun-dried tomatoes, and limp slivers of peppers (allegedly with anchovies in a vinaigrette) sat on a bed of good, chewy paella; luckily, they put the decent ceviche in a separate glass.

The tapas themselves, regardless of presentation, can also be muddled. It’s a challenge to any kitchen to turn out so many dishes. With about 30 tapas, plus sandwiches, salads and desserts on the menu, I didn’t expect each dish at Alegria to be a dazzler. But I came away wishing that almost every dish had been more focused, finished, and, in some cases, fresher.

Tapas, being small, don’t have time to seduce; their virtues should be clear, distinctive, immediate.

I did love crunchy lamb croquettes and their sauce, even if the sauce tasted more like mustard than a true ground hazelnut-and-chile romesco. Also clear and to-the-point was a mixed meat and cheese plate, with a few slices each of jamon serrano (here interchangeable with prosciutto), lomo embuchado (cured pork loin) and manchego cheese. Grilled vegetables were beautifully done: smoky and judiciously charred. Almost terrific were bite-sized corn tortillas, each topped with black beans, basil and chicken: They just needed a little kick of something--salt, spice, lemon, something --to knock them out of blandsville.

Less pleasing are brackish clams and mussels in a light saffron broth. A robust stew of chorizo and beef with leeks, cabbage and beans is murky and not, as promised, spicy. Half a baby chicken, roasted, is tasty and moist, but the “Spanish” rice is undercooked, bitter with saffron.

For dessert, cola de novia , a soggy shell-shaped pastry is filled with vanilla flan that tastes mostly of refrigeration. Pear strudel is made with rock-hard pears.

All these dishes are not necessarily ill-conceived. Rather, they’re lacking in focus and finesse, as if cooked by someone who has no feel for the final product.

* Alegria Cafe and Tapas Bar, 115 Pine Ave., Long Beach, (310) 436-3388. Open for lunch Monday through Friday, for dinner 7 days. Full bar. Major credit cards. Dinner for two, food only $20-$45.