They are old and young. new restaurants who bet on ancient. Modern businesses that are crazy about tradition. Far from imported trends, oblivious to fashions of TikTok, to his ball. They just arrived, but it seems like they’ve been here forever. In these newly painted houses the usual kitchen and the current nonsense is chased away. Some cling to tradition, others play with it, but they all breathe the same love for the kitchen of a lifetime. Look back to move forward. Definitely, dipping bread is cool again.
1. Chup, chup, hooray!
Unbeatable menu
Only breakfasts and meals, that hospitality workers also have a life out there. Only today’s menu, so we don’t get bored and we all understand each other better. From Monday to Friday, €14.50. Saturdays, €19.
I love La Bullanga (Diputació, 437). She speaks to the client with brutal frankness. Your arguments from him? Popular dishes and classics of traditional Catalan cuisine without unnecessary Vinicius haggling. In La Bullanga it cooks well and carefully: magnificent seafood rice to start, spectacular’hood’ with ‘samfaina’ to continue, impeccable’mel i killed’ to finish off. Generous portions. Fast service. Tables full of people enjoying themselves. And the feeling that your account hasn’t been looted. Bingo.
2. Top snacks
Honesty between breads
You see it from the outside and it has the charm of a carajillos bar and game of dominoes. There are no lentils here, there is no Thursday paella, there are no slot machines. They don’t even need to. Bar Roma (València, 104) has specialized in sandwicha format that they have sensibly updated, and seasoned with a brief collection of tapas –championship croquettes and salad– who hold their divas’ bags like no one else between breads. He Milanese sandwich It is a classic of the house, but do not miss the eggplant with parmesan or double chin ironing. They have also reinvented the bikini, a sandwich that jumps from breakfast to dinner and arrives at the table to canned applause. All roads lead to Rome.
3. ‘Capipota’ mother
Stop and restaurant
Despite his youth, he has become in his own right a a Gràcia classic. In Fonda Pepa (Tordera, 58) you breathe an atmosphere ionized by the heat of the youth and sifted by the temper of the traditional. In this give and take between past and present, pots and stews they stir in a house that respects the deep kitchen and well-adjusted licenses are allowed, without squeaks. Barry White’s beard, wow! roast croquettes! And then they go and give you a ‘hood’ which is like a collagen orgasm. And don’t miss some good ones sweetbread or that sea and mountain rice What I see in the letter. La Pepa: the calm that precedes the nap.
4. New in Born
Dishes without cheat
The seventies sign at the entrance is a declaration of principles: we are youthsbut we do classic. And they do it like Sinatra: in their own way. He Pimentel bar (Carders, 11) receives you in the viscera of the Born with a letter that bets on the tradition of neighborhood tapas bar and tries to seduce a young clientele with bold updates of old acquaintances.
On the inventory: appetizers, tapas and dishes with little margin of error. Gildas, zamburiña with confit tomato, croquette shrimp with head reduction, Salmorejo with tuna tartare (or vice versa), grilled squid with kimchi sauce, Meatloaf with cuttlefishsausage with beans… And in the desserts there is ‘mel i mata’, but in a cheesecake and with a snowfall of grated walnut on the back. Nostrat and trendy at the same time: Pimentel in its purest form.
5. Andalusian power
Iberian tapas
I to Boston and you to Cádiz. The very young Bodega Solera (Còrsega, 339) wants you to travel to a Andalusian tavernto. And she gets it. You will need several sweeps to absorb all the visual attractions of this space given to the cult spanish tapas. In the parade of sins, Murcian power in the form of seafood saladCatalan power in the form of fricandóMenorcan power in the form of ironed ensaimada….
The list is long and covers a wide part of the national tavern recipe book. Kim Díaz, one of the promoters of the project, assures me that they will soon introduce juicy new features. By the way, get lost in their 680 wine referencesmostly natural: only someone with an iceberg instead of a heart would be able to liven up the visit to Solera with water.
6. Magic taps
Jet vermouth
The newest Pis Pas Bar (Torrent de l’Olla, 7) occupies the same space as Lo Pinyol, one of the most beloved (and mourned) wineries in Gràcia. And it has started well, because it has known how to keep the spirit of its predecessor. Wood and marble prevail. wine barrels huge ones observe the bohemia as if they were gargoyles. In the main hall, the kings of the party are some faucets in which you can refill the glass with your favorite poison. There is vermouth, sangria, muscat and even negroni. The table of sausagesthe salad and the homemade sandwiches They don’t come out of any tap, but they are just as good.
7. Tavern lineage
Tonight it goes out
Javier’s children (Amigó, 30) is fantasy, a satire of the pijerío of the upper Diagonal Julio Iglesias ‘friendly’a gap that borders on kitsch and claims the Spanish winery of a lifetime through fooling around. The place is a virguería, a traditional tavern coming from a parallel reality full of Javieres that surrounds you and prepares you to enjoy a parade of appetizers, sausages, tapas and dishes cojonudos: the language is delirious, the ‘hood‘it bursts your brains, stuffed eggs They enter like a cloud, shrimp prawnsthe potato sausage and the cod gildas they disappear Javier’s children value a rpopular and direct Spanish ecetarioof product, with stews of heels and real pickles… They may be horny, but their culinary proposal is very serious.
8. Tapas in the neighborhood
Second home
Related news
This is the story of rescue of a neighborhood bar whose timeline dates back to the 80s. The Canada (Bòbila, 5) has been living a second life for very recently, and nothing seems to have changed, although it has. The steel bar and the crumbling tiles speak of a Barcelona in danger of extinction.
On the board that presides over the bareto, a festival of appetizers and cold bites: gildas, seafood salad, pickled anchovies, mussels with chips, smoked tuna, sausages, anchovies, the usual suspects, in short, of a tapería ‘made in Spain’. I also detect some stews, highly recommended by customers: the meatballs take no prisoners, they tell me. Kraftwerk plays in the background music. On my table, one Alhambra cane perfectly shot and a aged cheese plate with tomato bread. All good at La Cañada, a new bar that wants to be like the bar your grandfather took you to, a tribute to the neighborhood bars that have given shelter to so many wayward souls. Things happen here. Thank you for coming back.