He died without time to attend the presentation of ‘La Boqueria del Juanito ‘Pinotxo’, a book where he had been honest and related his intense life – seen from behind and in front of his famous bar – and also the evolution of the most iconic market in Barcelona. He was enormously excited to star in such a volume, overflowing with photos from the albums of family and friends, and those that Josep Ródenas recently shot at him, before and after shedding his waiter’s vest forever. The party could not be. Juan Bayén passed away a few days before that tribute, but next week the work (Genco Editorial) will be presented publicly along with the wax figure that will immortalize him, although his smile and his people skills are already minted in the memory of Barcelona.
El Periódico has had access to the book and extracted some keys, which not only illustrate the character in the first person, but also the way in which he was seen by a huge circle of colleagues and household names. And although his last stage was overshadowed by the conflict that led to his sale of the bar, the ‘divorce’ of a part of the family, and the legal battle for ownership of the business and the name, the story also reflects a different previous history. Marked by a lineage that was very close for a long time and forged what until recently was one of the leading bars in the city guides.
The man who was born poor and died a millionaire
“The culture of effort and sacrifice It has been decisive in configuring my way of giving myself,” says Bayen. “We were very humble people,” she says, recalling a childhood marked by the bombings of the civil war, her modest home first in Raval and years later in Poble Sec And above all the figure of his mother, Caterina, who came to Barcelona selling lemons on a street vendor, then sold dressing gowns in a stall (“a counter”) in the Plaza de la Gardunya, and later, when her first fiancé died, she he did with the ‘business’ turning it into what Juanito claims was the first hot food bar.
That kitchen would gradually evolve to feed the workers and customers of a market in transformation. The family managed to improve their fragile economy with many years of work, to which Juan contributed by helping since he was a child, also lending a hand to his bricklayer father some weekends and even playing soccer for 100 pesetas a game. The business would take a qualitative leap, he underlines pages later, with the arrival on stage of his sister María de él to the kitchen. And another one with that of her son, Albert Asín, in the year 2000, when they moved from a “dwarf” stall at the gates of the market, which they have occupied to date.
That recipe book and that unique environment to which he contributed with his hook, gradually turned him into meeting point of restaurateurs, such as Isidre Gironès (Ca l’Isidre) or the Adrià brothers, and also of celebrities and legions of tourists who had read about him. He to the point of receiving multi-million dollar offers in recent years (there was talk of five and even eight million). It is not known for how much money the Pinotxo was transferred, but it is Juan Bayen was very rich just a few weeks.
A family sewn in the market
The image that has emerged in recent months, when his nephew Jordi accused him of having sold the business with his back to him despite having a joint venture, is far from the family story that recounts from previous years. He had a close relationship with his brothers Albert (who did not work in the hotel business) and María. Such was the delivery of this that narrates how water broke in the bar to give birth to the nephew now in discord. In other words, Jordi was always on the scene. In fact, he grew up in the market and would later take over in the kitchen after the early death of his brother, while Juanito continued to work as a waiter, coffee expert, and excellent public relations.
The work obviously does not enter into the internal friction that may have occurred, as in all families. Bayen alludes to the wonderful summers (the second week of vacation) when he would take his seven nephews on vacation in the “best years” of his life. In 1966 he married Carmen, the love of his life, he says, with whom he now ended his days. The widow keeps the confrontation open.
“Ask whoever you want who Juanito is, everyone knows. He is an icon and a part of the city,” said Jordi Asín of his ‘tiet’ in the final pages of dedications, when no one imagined the outcome of the story, but the tension already existed as can be seen from the note that his lawyer made public just after his death.
Conversely, the uncle alludes to Jordi, “who deals with me every day”. Albert formed it when he fell ill with cancer. “He gave up his job as a fishmonger to continue with Pinotxo: it’s not what he likes the most, but it is what he loves the most, like everyone in the Bayen family.”
The creation of a local myth
The popularity that he was acquiring came to him almost without realizing it. After giving up football seeing that he would never shine enough, he started running around Montjuïc to keep fit. He was hooked to the point of beginning to participate in races and in twenty marathons, including the one in New York. So the man almost fainted, he narrates, when some men in ties from the IOC appeared and suggested that he take the torch from Drassanes to Plaza de Catalunya, passing in front of his Boqueria… In the photos of 92 he looks radiantas a local and charismatic character that he already was.
In parallel, the tourist landing skyrocketed. On more than a few occasions the Pinotxo, which ended with the nickname because it had a thousand milk dog to which it gave that name that would end up naming the bar, alludes to the fraternal atmosphere that existed in the market. To the delivery of the paradistas to raise those businesses. To the times in which their lives were intertwined, unlike now, when the foreign clientele is new every day and there are more and more anonymous shop assistants behind the counters. But that ‘boom’ in the end made the business prosperous.
“Pinotxo, a photo, please, It is probably one of the phrases I have heard the most in my life. I don’t know how I got to this”, he mused. Dealing with writers, artists, journalists and their smooth talk, along with the warmth of the bar made the magic, beyond gastronomy or its flirtatious cafes. The forced retirement marked him the pandemic, which passed sadly. When he returned to the market, he was afraid of retiring. “I don’t want to think about spending so much time again without knowing what to occupy my day,” he says. One morning he suffered dizziness that was the trigger. No It was serious but it led him to rest, and goodbye to the market, it is not clear if forced or forced, as has been said later. “Pinotxo cut his bow tie”, picks up a chapter.
The anecdotes and the mark he left
In addition to summarizing his experiences, and how he saw society and the market change (from when whale meat was dispatched to the appearance of other foods) in the 60s, 70s, 80s, 90s… Bayen inserts how he met his great friends, almost always linked to restaurants and the Boqueria. As Ramon Cabau (“his death was the greatest tragedy I have witnessed”, in 1987), among countless names. He remembers how he saw two young men at his bar every day, whom he later recognized on a cover as Ferran and Albert Adrià. Another day she looked at her bar, without recognizing her, Jacqueline Bisset. Then politicians and Hollywood stars like Woody Allen would parade. A non stop
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Among those who dedicate signed pages to it are Carme Ruscalleda (“the Pinotxo is synonymous with the Boqueria”, “the stall is the maximum expression of the vitality of a bar”), Raül balam (“he reinvents himself every day, he raises the blind with the same illusion that he did 80 years ago”), Javier Marshal (“he has so much joy and so much drive that he hits you”), Ismael Prados (“he is always out there, making you feel good when you go to his house”), Carles Gaig (“what Pinotxo has done for La Boqueria is spectacular, brutal”), Joan Rock (“represents commitment to the market and to the job of a waiter” (…) “he is also a literary character”), Ferran adrià (“she symbolizes doing well, sympathy, generosity, she has it all…She is one of the most beloved people in this entire gastronomic environment”), Joan Manel Serrat (“Pinotxo is more than the character the person Joan”) and many more.
In the work, with texts by Inés Butrón, Àlex Aguilar, Carla Alpeñés and Félix Montero, and drawings by Javier Mariscal, Óscar Manresa and Montse Fransoy, the final sentences are for him: “Until next time, may it go well, have a good trip for everyone,” he says goodbye.