A couple years ago, Bulla was called Por Fin, which roughly translates to “at last”.  Some say it was a reference to Pep Guardiola’s bringing Barcelona to the top of La Liga. Others say it referred to the Spanish National Soccer Team’s then-rising star.  Still others, that it was a jab at the City of Coral Gables’s infamously byzantine permit process.

Whatever the truth might be, the restaurant took years to build, opened to great success in the most competitive neighborhood in Miami’s culinary world, and then closed for renovation within a year because good wasn’t good enough.  They re-opened as Bulla, a word for which we have no English equivalent.  “Bulla” means something like the happy chaos that blooms when too many friends with too many stories get together at long last in too small a place.  “Bulla” is right: they can fill the house even on weeknights, so you’d better lean in to chat up your date.

Bulla specializes in the cuisine of Catalunya, one of Spain’s ancient rebel provinces.  Often folk come for small plates at the bar before their next stop, though if they’ve flown in cigalas, a long prawn from the muddy shallows of the southern Mediterranean, you’d better stay for a full meal; Merendero de la Mari is a long flight away.