Santa Magdalena Restaurant: traditional cuisine in Gràcia

Quim Marqués closed the Suquet de l’Almirall in 2018, She opened with her daughter Paula, a nutritionist, the “cultural” space. L’ExquisEat in 2020 and both have just given new life to Saint Magdalenea neighboring bar that they transferred. The family as a driving force and refuge: The third name is Maria Àngels, sister and aunt, in service or whatever arises.

Suquet was a promoter of Barceloneta when the neighborhood was already It smelled too much like poached and thawed shrimp. and Quim (1964), after almost 30 years, left his daily work in front of the fire for a less burning life, although the blue flame lit his veins: “The truth is that I needed it.” Every cook has the soul of a masochist.

He and Paula were having coffee at Santa Magdalena, in front of L’ExquisEat, and one day they learned that Carmen Pavón, the owner, left him.

While waiting for retirement, Carmen is now the house waitress. Restaurants are made up of people and their stories hardly cross the barslike the cook Pieter Van der Lindewho was behind the meals at the first Planet Hollywood and the Frederic Marès and Tèxtil i d’Indumentària museums and renews his vows in Santa Magdalena.

Neighborhood cuisine, the poster says, and it is a concept to be sanctified, like the snacks and breakfast fork.

I agree with what Quim says when describing his will: “Traditional cuisine, slow cooking, cuisine that has no hours”. Yes, it has hours and today, more than ever, you have to measure your times well in the hospitality industry.

But I disagree with the idea that the ‘traditional’ has disappeared from Barcelona: recently, Banquet, Can Marlau, Bullanga either The Sosenga. I like, as a slogan, the following phrase he pronounces: “Normal is news”. Some time ago I wrote a chronicle about El Ferrer de Tall entitled: ‘The normal as exceptional’.

In Barceloneta, Quim cooked thousands and thousands of paellas, in a way that declines the seafaring nostalgia (“you have to look ahead”) in favor of the mountain casserole: a rice with ribs, chickpeas and spinach.

At my command, macaroni, fricandó, ‘capipota’ and pajamas (yes, also necessary as a garment for the nap after the cuchipanda), plus Quim’s suggestions: tomatoes (now out of season) blanched with garlic oil, a slice of Galician madder and a tribute to Pinotxo in the form of chickpeas, sausage and squid, mixture of two ‘pinotxian’ icons.

At the peak, the fricandówith a final touch of anise, and four French fries, and the ‘capipota’ with ‘samfaina’both family recipes, and they last.

The advertised cardinal’s macaroni is not, at least, if you follow the recipe. ‘The Catalan cuynera’ from the mid-19th century, placed in layers and with yolks, cheese and roasted juice.

The pasta is delicious, with bolognese and bechamel, but the ecclesial surname that corresponds to him is another: I suggest santa macaroni Similar dilemma with pajamas, here, short sleeve pajamaswith mini flan with cream, peaches in syrup and biscuit.

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From my seat, surrounded by paintings rescued from the Suquet, with framed drawings signed by famous clients, such as Lou Reed or Jon Bon Jovi, I see the cook working in a table between the open kitchen and the barlike a kind of intermediary between worlds and surrounded by still lifes of vegetables and sausages.

I drink a glass of Brutal Flowerxarel·lo and macabeu, and when reviewing the wine list for the second time I notice the porrón and I say that that is the attitude: get dirty to resist.