Residents of Granada rally round to protect their sacred tapas | Spain

It’s often the majestic opulence of the Alhambra or the craggy peaks of the Sierra Nevada that lure visitors to the southern Spanish city of Granada. But it takes just minutes in one of the local bars – whether a heaving, dimly-lit tavern or a space where wine barrels stand in for tables – to discover another of the city’s charms: the free tapas that come with most drink orders.

While olives and crisps flow freely in bars across Spain, Granada’s establishments have long gone the extra mile, serving up deluxe tapas that range from deep-fried shrimp to hearty patatas bravas.

But in recent days, the city has been gripped by a debate that cuts to the core of this ubiquitous tradition. The catalyst came from the city’s mayor after he seemingly took a dig at the custom while speaking at a festival celebrating local gastronomy. “The city council will no longer promote free tapas,” said Paco Cuenca. “Never again.”

He pointed to economics to back his view, describing paid-for tapas as a means to bolster the restaurant industry and foster a local take on the high-end gastronomy that draws millions of tourists a year to Spain.

“One has to pay for tapas because they’re haute cuisine,” he added. “That’s what leads to profitability and creates stable jobs.”

News of his remarks traveled swiftly along the hundreds of bars that line the city’s winding alleyways and narrow streets. Media from across the country swooped in to cover the polemic in the cap city – city of the tapa – asking whether this was the end of free tapas in Granada or pronouncing that the mayor had “declared war” on the tradition. The conversation lit up the inbox of Gayle Mackie, who has run tapas tours in the city since 2006. “I got the link about 10 times on the same day,” said Mackie. “It was sort of a ‘shock, horror, look at this’.”

She described the mayor’s push for change as quixotic. For Granadiños, “the tapa is sacred,” she said. “Having a tapa is ingrained in the lifestyle here.”

As misinformation began to swirl about the city’s plans, the mayor swiftly moved to set the record straight. “As if we’re going to ban them! They’re part of the essence of Granada, and I want them in my city,” Cuenca said in a video posted online.

Still, the debate raged on. Some people were quick to point out that Granada’s tapas are hardly free: drinks in the city are often sold at an inflated price to compensate for the handout. A cold beer, for example, will run up a bill of around €2.50 in Granada, compared to €1.50 or €2 in similarly-sized cities, noted the newspaper El País.

Others joined the mayor to call for change. “Let’s be honest, many of the supposedly free tapas in Granada are not free, nor are they tasty, nor can you choose them,” said local journalist Cecilia Cano on Twitter. “Yes to cover, of course, but I prefer to pay for it, choose it and eat well.”

The debate cast a spotlight on a conversation that has quietly been playing out in the city as a smattering of restaurants attempt to carve out a culture of higher-end, paid tapas, said Gregorio Garcia, who leads the federation that represents Granada’s hospitality industry. “There’s a saying here that says with three tapas in Granada you’ve had a meal,” said Garcia. “So the people in restaurants say, if they’re eating tapas, what do we do?”

His association has long pushed to make space in the city for a wider variety of bars and restaurants, in hopes of better catering to palates that range from cash-starved university students to high-rolling tourists. “In the end, I think it would be very difficult to do away with the tapa in Granada,” he said. “It’s something that you can’t get rid of. What we should do is give people other options.”