Bars, what places: from the first coffee to the last cocktail, complete satisfaction
By Ricard Martín
Ah, authenticity... That elusive quality so cherished by visitors of a great metropolis. The antidote that turns us from tourist to traveler, allowing us to sit and feel the city elbow to elbow with the locals. Where to find authenticity? Well, in the bars, of course. Whether they are worn out by decades –or centuries– of drink and elbows, or recently opened but aimed at promoting life and interaction, not gentrification. Bars, in short, that are the antithesis of tourist traps. We start with the paradox of seeking authenticity in the Gothic Quarter, a neighborhood that is a Frankenstein of fake old buildings –built at the beginning of the 20th century– mixed with true Gothic from the 13th century in dribs and drabs. We start with a good coffee: like the one served at Tostaderos Bon Mercat (Baixada de la Llibreteria, 3): this is the bar of the Marcilla family from Barcelona.
They sold their brand and name to a Dutch multinational in the mid-eighties, but they continue to roast and serve excellent coffee under the name of Dibar. A morning haunt for politicians and artists, it's a café with sales and a roastery offering great value for money. But if you want an extraordinary coffee, cross the square: at Ciutat, 5 is Black Remedy, an innovative specialty café with gourmet sandwiches and as exquisite treatment of the euphoric bean as of the milk. The business belongs to the Ascaso family, pioneers in the manufacture of grinders. A trendy café at Ciutat, 7. In any case, these are key places to avoid the franchises of burnt coffee at exorbitant prices. The time for vermouth is approaching, and there's nothing better than a well-poured beer – or cider –.
In a phenomenal understanding of tradition and modernity, Asturian chef Fran Heras has opened El Chigre (Sombrerers, 7) in front of Santa María del Mar: it's a hybrid between a cider house and a vermouth bar, equipped with beer and vermouth taps and a charcoal grill. “I want to bring together workers and bourgeoisie, locals and tourists, and have them eat chorizo and barnacles”, explains the chef. Heras and the exquisite interior designer Eva Arbonés have refurbished a late 17th-century house with historical remnants: the floor comes from a school in Lérida, the counter from a bookstore... the sink in the restrooms, from a baptismal font!
And after a good meal, you can opt for a nap, but it's more productive to reseat your buttocks on a terrace with added value. If you are around the Palau de la Música area, know that the artistic center underground L'Antic Teatre (Verdaguer i Callís, 12) has a bar with an inner terrace that is hidden gold: cold beer or a Moroccan tea in the shade of anarchic trees amidst the tourist throng. Its director, the artist Semolinika Tomic, explains that “it's important for us that the bar is a melting pot: elderly people, Germans, Moroccans, Chinese, English...
Darkness falls: you can choose to stay in the bustling La Ribera neighborhood or storm the Raval. Or do both, really. In any case, it's not a bad idea to start at the Pony Cafe (Portal Nou, 23), a crowded bar with the air of a boudoir from a risqué movie and a phenomenal pop-rock music selection. It exudes a somewhat sordid charisma, and the drinks (straight shots, mixed drinks, and gin and tonics) are simple but of good quality.
And now, with a piece of the night upon us, we head up the Rambla towards Boadas (Tallers, 1), the cocktail bar of Barcelona. Opened in 1933 by Miguel Boadas Parera (born in Cuba in 1895), this circular bar is known as the church to the world beyond. It was the gateway for cocktails in Spain, and its semicircular bar never stopped serving drinks, even when bombs were falling. The death of Miguel's daughter –Maria Dolors, 'the priestess of the Moon with the perennial pearly smile' according to Vázquez Montalbán– in 2015 spurred a renovation of the venue –the employees took over the continuity of the business– and today it combines classicism with avant-garde, thanks to the craft of Adal Márquez, still a young prodigy of mixology. Boadas was on the verge of succumbing to the sad fate of becoming a fast-food expansion a few years ago. It would have been a crime against drinkers: its stools maintain the sedative telluric power that once subdued Greta Garbo, Hemingway, Dalí, Picasso, or Miró.
If you've opted for two Dry Martinis, you'll already be swaying. Skip to the next paragraph. On the other hand, if you've been indulging in Moscow Mules or the like, you can afford a little stroll to the "Bar Muy Buenas", another testament to survival. A curious story, that of this modernist gem opened in 1896 as a salt cod shop, turned into a bar in 1924: in 2014, angered by an eviction for non-payment, the previous tenant dismantled much of the modernist heritage – the coffered facade and the sign, a good part of the interior furniture, screens, counter...– and held it hostage in a warehouse on the outskirts. After judicial persuasion by the City Council, the reprobate returned the pieces and dumped them on the floor of the premises. The La Confitería group reopened this classic in 2017 to its current state of grace: a dazzling work of goldsmithing and research, transporting you to the most Wagnerian and baroque modernism. The bar as a work of art. Climb up to the cocktail bar in the mezzanine: a reinterpretation of the great drinks using Catalan liquors. "Why use Pastis when we have the wonderful Anís del Mono? Why resort to sake if we have artisanal rice liquor from the delta?" they rightly ask. And the result is completely satisfactory and surprising.
Alright, you're the ones with the two large drinks at Boadas. Your body craves some action and shaking, but not at the expense of cocktails served in highball glasses. A quick taxi ride takes you to Slow Barcelona, at Paris, 186. A cocktail bar that will drop your jaw for two reasons: first, for the quality of the drinks, original creations that blend liquid and solid elements. Second: it's a cocktail bar with a club! Described as rock and roll chic, it's an extremely elegant and chromed space where you start to lose your bearings. Of course, if you agree with Norman Mailer's view that guys don't dance, then no problem, right on the corner you can settle yourselves at the bar of Ideal Cocktail Bar (Aribau, 89): the other great cocktail classic of the city with the permission of Boadas. In this robust English-style lounge – with red upholstered sofas and noble wood – Josep Maria Gotarda, the grandson of the founder Antonio Gotarda, reigns supreme. He decided to bring the European cocktail bar model to Barcelona in 1931. The Ideal is one of the great European temples of whisky and bourbon, and sipping a restorative whisky sour here is to feel the weight of time and the caress of the barrel on your throat. Balsamic.
And at two in the morning you're ready to explode. A stone's throw away, the nightclub Luz de Gas (Muntaner, 246) offers a chance with a mix of party-goers from all classes, from plumbers to lawyers, to the rhythm of Top 40 and vintage disco. But if you want something wild to end the night, it's time to descend into the depths: of the city and the basements. Karma, in a basement at Plaza Real, 10. It's a warm tunnel of dim light and rock and roll, that starts off slow and heats up. From friendly conversations at the bar, to seek and destroy on a crowded and hedonistic dance floor, at a frenetic pace. And if the crowd thins out, visit Magic, (Passeig de Picasso, 40) a bastion of rock with tradition (huge framed photos of the Stones and Banda Trapera guide you down to the party) that at five in the morning turns you into taboo-breaking machines and beer-guzzling beasts; perhaps the next day you won't remember half of the boozy mass. But heck, as Mick Jagger used to say: you can't always get what you want, but if you try sometimes, you just might find you get what you need.
Ricard Martín is a journalist specializing in gastronomic and nightlife information for over 10 years and collaborates with various media, including Time Out, Tapas, and Rockdelux magazines and the broadcasters Catalunya Ràdio and Cadena SER Catalunya.
