I had the good fortune to go to Social, the new Aspen restaurant on East Hopkins Avenue, on opening night, but I finally had the chance to return this week with a group of four friends of ours from Michigan.

At first, I was concerned we had led our visiting Spartans astray. Social, you see, is based on the Spanish tapas concept, whereby small dishes are the norm–and these guys like to live LARGE when they’re living in Aspen. One time, at Takah Sushi, our visiting host from Michigan ordered a whole fish so big I was looking for the boat. When these guys saw Social had only a couple of big dishes, they started to mumble even as our stomachs were grumbling.

I should have known better: once the food started to arrive, our reservations went out the window. With a sociable bunch, small dishes at Social turn out to be just the thing. But if a restaurant goes small, then it had better deliver on the taste side of the equation, and nearly everything we ordered at Social was exceptional, especially the buffalo sliders and the scallops served on some kind of cookie thing. I was not enamored of the potstickers, but otherwise the eight or so small dishes we ordered were superb, an opinion shared by everyone at the table. The wine, port, and dessert drinks all got rave reviews as well.

I learned something else about tapas at Social’s table and finally (duh!) understood the meaning of the restaurant’s name. With food this good, shared with people you enjoy, it’s pretty much impossible to have a bad time.