Restaurant openings in Barcelona are a continuous trickle, sometimes a stream of news announced to great fanfare. But the trickle of goodbyes, of disappearing restaurants down the drain without anyone or hardly anyone knowing, it is also incessant. The last few months have been a constant requiem.
These days, ‘Tot Barcelona’ has warned of the closure of not just pizza (Enric Granados, 110), specialized in artisan pastas and Genoese specialties (pizza was not included in their offer), with interesting and affordable Italian wines. Its owner has transferred it to some Russian businessmen. The last (umpteenth) to leave. Added to the list that have been increasing in recent times these restaurants.
Last closed restaurants in Barcelona
the cornfield. Nicolás de la Vega and Frank Beltri, from Slow & Low, launched a Mexican restaurant (not a taco shop) in Baixada de Sant Miquel, 6. They served dishes that were born from memories. It lasted almost, almost, what it takes to prepare a guacamole without tomato (because they prepared it that way). The project did not work as they would have liked and they ended it; they feared, so they said, that it would jeopardize Slow & Low.
daddy sven. The chef and owner, Nina Olsson, lowered the blind on the successful establishment that she opened in 2010 in November and, after publishing the recipe book ‘Nordic Cuisine’ (Planeta Gastro), she returned to her native country to reunite with the her family and friends. she was the the only Swedish restaurant in Barcelonaand left many orphans from his stewed reindeer and his ‘smörgosburd’ buffet (marinated herring, smoked salmon, sausages, salads, the so-called Janssons temptation -baked potatoes gratin with anchovies-).
The malparía. This restaurant was the result of the alliance between Ever Cubilla (Claris 118) and Javier Caballero (Bodega Gol), of tiradito and tripe. It was not fusion cuisine, but association cuisine. I was in Blai, 2, the street governed by taperías. On the menu, the mussels, the salad with shrimp and tuna, the anchovy toast, grated manchego and pepper; the natural oyster and another with ‘ponzu’ sauce, the chicken/ham croquette and the choco croquette… There were disagreements between the two partners and the restaurant was only open for a month.
Sergi de Meia. Sergi de Meià had returned to the fireworks in a different location (Laforja, 83), combining his work as a cook with the presidency of a foundation. The motto of the house was ‘cuina catalana desacomplexada’ and it was well chosen: Catalan cuisine with personality that is wonderfully exemplified by the cream of spinach and the pigeon/cod tripe/’fajol’. “A short but intense path,” sums up the chef, who was not the owner of the business, but an investor who decided to close it despite the fact that it did not work entirely badly.
arigato. Sebastián Mazzola and Sussie Villarico just wanted an ice cream parlor that looked pretty and they came up with a restaurant with steaming deep dishes, and a bar where they understand sake. They were three years in Roger de Llúria, 114 until they said ‘up to here’ and announced it on the networks.
Holy Faith. This restaurant next to the church of Sant Gregori Taumaturg (Santa Fe de Nou Mèxic, 18) had a loyal clientele thanks to the ‘ssams’, ‘rolls’ and other more classic dishes, well prepared and with powerful flavours, such as the Russian salad shrimp, the truffled bikini with mozzarella and Iberian ham and the tomato ‘tartare’. After receiving a succulent transfer offer, the partners have accepted it a few weeks ago. It had been open for a little over a year.
Mattone. The semi-clandestine pizzeria that was in the glazed basement of Bistró Mató (Bisbe Català, 10) offered uncomplicated dishes with good Italian products. It closed in the spring of 2022 and is now the Bistró Mató rice restaurant.
Manairó. In this restaurant at Diputació, 424, the talented (and handyman, because he sometimes made his own kitchen utensils) Jordi Herrera came to boast a Michelin star… but it faded until, a few weeks ago, he closed forever .
dumbo cafe. What was Café San Telmo had a more ‘healthy’ proposal in which they commanded ‘bowls’, sandwiches and specialty coffees, as well as eggs, ‘burgers’ and ‘brunches’. With the end of the pandemic, the clients of the neighborhood (it is in Buenos Aires, 60, next to Diagonal) demanded a return to the origins and the business closed less than a year ago to return to being Café San Telmo, one more cafeteria classic, with ‘afterwork’ to enjoy a gin and tonic.
The exception: an announced closure
A few days ago and on Twitter, Pau Gascó, the chef and owner of Little Pau (Espanya Industrial, 22), announced that the next month of June will lower the blind of his restaurant, in which he will have served his signature cuisine for more than nine years. She did it “with her head held high and a lot of pride in a job well done” in his neighborhood, Sants. Thanks to her exceptional announcement, there is still time to savor her dishes.
Estimates and estimates, friends, clients and neighbors of the Sants neighborhood:
The Petit Pau tancarà les seves portes the proper month of June. I donate to satisfactorily finalize the project that has been in this restaurant for more than 9 years. ?1/9 pic.twitter.com/8hX0yPRnFG
— Pau Gascó ? (@gasco_pau) January 31, 2023
Farewell to neighborhood classics
Can Lluis. It was close to reaching its centenary, since it opened in 1929 and closed in 2021. But the pandemic was fatal, as was the legal battle that it had with the real estate fund that acquired the building where it was located, in the Raval (Cera, 49 ). Vázquez Montalbán would stir in his grave when he saw the place where he enjoyed his cod fritters disappear.
Mr. Parellada. What is now Carmina was, for many decades, Senyor Parellada (Argenteria, 37). After 38 years, he shut down the victim, another one, of the damn pandemic.
Closures in the Paseo de Sant Joan area
saint john. Since last September, there have been no queues in front of Sant Joan, at number 65 of the homonymous promenade. His homemade dishes acted as a powerful magnet for diners who could not reserve a table, and who could not ask for a lunch menu because, simply, there was not one. It was open 41 years.
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dirty duck. A year earlier (in September 2021) and in the same area (it was almost at the corner of Carrer de la Diputació and Paseo de Sant Joan), he lowered the blind. It was a restaurant with the name of a cocktail bar that made homemade food -he embroidered tripe and paellas- but he never prepared a dish with duck. Their owners were retiring after 41 years at the foot of the stove.
The keyA couple of blocks from there, another institution, La Llave, closed forever. Also that month and also after being 41 years giving service neighbors and workers in the area, faithful to their market kitchen. But the failed negotiation for the renewal of the lease and an economically devastating pandemic put an end to the popular restaurant in the Dreta del Eixample.