BARCELONUT

Posted Thursday, November 22, 2007

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Why is everyone crazy for Barcelona?

There’s that dreamy, euphoric expression l get from people when I mention it, big eyes glazing over with visions of sidewalk tapas bars, or Gaudi buildings, or, more likely, non-stop partying with people in architectural eyeglasses and square-toed shoes.

I’m married to David, a Barcelona native, which means I mention Barcelona a lot (and yeah, maybe more so I can see that big eyed reaction). In the past two years, It’s amazing how many people have told me they want to live there.

If you actually do live in Barcelona, you may spend too much time in nasty traffic and in smoky restaurants. People talk a lot about the estatut and the tripartit and other particularly Catalan political issues. If you’re just visiting don’t have to get involved with that consuming culebron, but I would recommend reading Robert Hughes’ book Barcelona, a grand and critical account of the city’s long cultural, political, industrial, and urban history, a history that is rooted in the story of the bourgeoisie.

I’m not going to go all Catalan on you and start saying that BCN is the best city in the world, or even that Barca is the best futbol team in the world. I will say that it’s an unquestionably great-looking, and great feeling, city, a feeling fanned by its location on the Mediterranean. With all of its high design and fabled coolness, there’s an underlying sense of tradition and of place among Barcelona natives, an established, comfortable rhythm. People really take time to talk to each other. To eat. To drink. To just live.

So far, I’ve never lived in Barcelona, and back when I lived for some years in other Spanish cities I was simply apathetic toward it (each region of Spain is really still it’s own kingdom, just as centuries ago). Now, I go there often, and I’m a convert. I have my favorite places, and with the help of David’s extended family and friends, who’ve become mine, I feel like its my city.

I’ve become a Barcelonut too.

Sure cure for jet lag: Montjuic

I’m sitting outside at a metal table at Quiosc-Bar Las Cascades, which is on a wide dirt path in front of the National Palace building that now houses the Museum of Catalan art. I’m listening to the wind swaying the cypress trees that line the path and looking at a view of the entire city. The beer costs two Euros.

This is Montjuic, rising above Barcelona from the Plaza de Espana, the hill where the Romans are thought to have once built a shrine to the God Jupiter. This is a great introduction to Barcelona. You can visit the Mies Van der Rohe Pavilion, first built for the 1929 World’s Fair, an emblem of the city and the quintessential modern house where every room is outside.

If you keep going up the hill, you’ll get to the Fundacion Miro (you can catch the public bus when you get tired.) There are a quite a few little outdoor bars along the way. Sit, talk, take out your notebook, just enjoy it.

EAT

Setas (mushrooms, though there must be a more royal name for these woodsy richer cousins of the shitaki)! gambas de palamos (monster shrimp that taste like shrimp on steroids, but it’s really just the way shrimp should taste)! fideua (the Catalan paella- made with short noodles instead of rice)! And Sta. Ana potato chips!

When it comes to food, Cataluna is god’s country, and eating “local” products is just the way it’s always been. But the over-priced tourist restaurants offering crusty tapas you’ll find on the Ramblas are, well, you can eat that kind of crap in Times Square. Don’t waste your time or money, there are so many great places to eat you could spend a year eating in a different restaurant ever night. Here are some worth seeking out:

I love the ocean, I love seafood, and I love the Barceloneta. The historic fishermen’s ’hood and city beach is my favorite part of Barcelona. In the early ‘90s, when the city was transformed for the Olympics, this area was cleaned up, though it still retains some of that gritty Mediterranean port feel (take a walk through the winding streets behind the beachfront buildings) and, luckily, neighborhood fish houses remain.

Our friend Alex Gonzalez, who lives in a beachfront apartment here, took us to CAN MANO, a small place with the day’s catches scribbled on a black board and vino verde by the pitcher. The food is not fussy but it is fresh. This is a traditional workingman’s place that’s filled at lunch with old timers, artsy types and everyone else who likes seafood at a good price. A lot of the fish is fried, so please leave carb paranoia at the door. Sardines, calamari, little pescaditos…Everything they’ve got is recommended.
CAN MAÑO. C. Baluard, 12. - Tel: 93 319.30.82

Down the street is COVA FUMADA, where you’ll see the resident abuelita cooking right as you walk in the door. This is the neighborhood’s most popular lunch place, and the view of the stove is unbeatable. Ask for a glass of beer while you wait for a table. C. Baluard, COVA FUMADA 56. Tel. 93 221.40.61

After lunch, you can walk down the long boardwalk, where you’ll probably see tons of cutisimo kittens, and no matter what time of year, people in the water (and if it’s winter, they’re not from here). There’s a lounge area with some great concrete chaises whose design is the perfect combination of blocks and curves where you can stretch out and look at the sea for hours if you want. Reminds me of Philippe Starck’s garden at the Delano in Miami, but this is public space. In Barcelona they know about real design within reach.

When you want, quite simply, some of the best seafood you will ever eat in your life, go to RESTAURANT BARCELONETA. This is a beautiful spot overlooking the port, upstairs in a modern building (designed by my father-in-law, architect Luis Navas.) Request a table on the terrace. This restaurant is packed with Barcelona families on Sunday afternoons, and is a good spot for special occasions. It’s a large, you could even say sprawling, place, but it’s elegant in a yacht club way and the service old school. If you’re looking for a souvenir of your trip, here are the Gambas de Palamos – the huge shrimp are fished in a special spot in nearby Girona -- (and don’t forget to suck the head, it’s the best part). You won’t forget the taste soon, and probably not the money you spend on them either. Be sure to ask for the day’s market price so you know what you’re getting into. The rices, with various kinds of seafood and broth, are also delicious here.
http://www.rte-barceloneta.com
RESTAURANT BARCELONETA L'Escar 22, Port Vell. - tel :932.212.111 (reservations suggested)

Here’s a recommendation from Alex Llovet, a.k.a Profesor Mansor of the electronic pop duo The Pinker Tones (http://www.thepinkertones.com/) Yes, he has a hipster look and an avant sound that’s shaken up the Latin music scene this year, but Alex is a down to earth guy. He lives surrounded by forest in one of Barcelona’s mountain-top neighborhoods, and he suggests traditional Catalan food.

“I´m a bit tired of being recommended over-designed and therefore overprized nouvelle cuisine (which isn't so nouvelle anyway) restaurants. That's why I´m recommending a traditional –in a surprisingly sober way- Catalan cuisine retaurant. It's called L'AGUT and it´s in the post-industrial area of Poble Nou. Mmmmm…” L’Agut has been around since 1924.
L’AGUT, Carrer Gignàs, 16. - tel: 93.315.17.09
www.barcelona-on-line.es/agut

My cousins (by marriage), Olivia and Mercedes, have a restaurant, Comedor Verdor, in Pals, a rural, seaside town in Girona, at the family-owned hotel where David and I got married
http://www.lindoshuespedes.com/
Yes, I am blessed, and I hope you will go there some time. It’s about two hours outside of the city.

Olivia and Mercedes don’t come to Barcelona much these days (they kind of hate cities), but when they do, they still like another clasico, 7 PUERTAS (7 Portes in Catalan). Very classic actually – this is Barcelona’s oldest restaurant, and, according to the web site, the first place in Barcelona where running water was installed and the back drop for the first photograph ever taken in Spain. (are they sure there was only one camera in Spain then?) Federico Garcia Lorca, Che Guevara, and Ernest Hemingway (where didn’t he eat?) were among the revolutionary guests to dine here. But don’t be shy, Bo Derek and Antonio Banderas have also graced this place. Olivia recommends the rice dishes.
7 Portes, Pg. Isabel II, 14 - 08003 Barcelona. - tel: 93.319.30.33

Dinner and a movie? An alternative to the usual Catalan menu, and one of my favorite restaurants in Barcelona is CAFE SALAMBO, the kind of laid back but consciously designed situation you picture (and wish for) in a European city. Great wine, good background music, an interesting menu with options for eating light or vegetarian. It’s in a renovated factory next door to the Cines Verdi Park (where English-language films are shown in their original version with subtitles, not dubbed), in the Gracia neighborhood.
http://personal.telefonica.terra.es/web/cafesalambo/
Café Salambo C. Torrijas 51- tel: 932.186.966

FLASH FLASH is as mod as the movie Blow Up, and like that film captured a cultural revolution, this restaurant shook up the Spanish scene when it first opened in the early seventies. Fashion photographer Leopoldo Pomes was responsible for the Factory-esque décor and the mural size photo of his model wife on the walls. Flash Flash is more laid back than it when it was jet set central, but it still fills up nightly until 1:30 pm, and it’s one place where Barcelona friends often like to take a visitor (me) for a real Barcelona experience. The food: tortillas – omelettes -- in dozens of varieties. They also serve salads and a hell of a good hamburger here.

BTW, for some insight into the uncool Spain of the seventies, still under Franco, its residents snuck off to France to see risqué flicks like Blow up, get the movie Torremolinos 73. Here’s a description on Amazon:

http://www.amazon.com/Torremolinos-73-Pablo-Berger/dp/B000CCD1WU

Flash Flash Granada del Penedès, 25 (Gracia neighborhood) 34.93.237.0990 (open 1 pm to 1:30 am)

If you’ve read anything about Barcelona, you already know about PINOXO, the bar in the Boqueria market. It’s true what they say – delicious tapas from early morning until dusk, surrounded by a host of charismatic market characters, a great meeting place. Pinoxo is great, but the must-experience is the market itself – produce has never been so exciting.
Pinotxo, Mercat de la Boquería, puesto 66-67- tel: 933.171.731

And don’t forget to try the Sta. Ana potato chips. You can find them in any corner bar.

SHOP

SITA MURT's clothes are timeless in a fashionista way, well-made, suprising – reflecting runway trends, but not what everyone’s wearing; you’re never sure what you’ll find there. In addition to Sita Murt’s line, there are clothes by Italian and Danish designers.
Sita Murt, Avinyo 18, - tel: 933. 010.006

http://www.sitamurt.com

Here’s a shopping recommendation from Alex Llovet of the Pinkertones:

“7RETHINK is one of the most original clothes shops in the city. All the clothes are inspired by great musicians… from Miles Davies to The Cure, via Jimmy Hendrix or Cole Porter… Eclectic and surprising! … and in the middle of the store there is a space called "The Red Room" with some decks where you can feel free to have a mix and chill out for a while. And it´s in the posh area of El Born!”
7Rethink, C/ <<Comerç, 23

www.7rethink.com

I met HELENA ROHNER years ago when I lived in Las Palmas, Canary Islands, where she’s from, just after she graduated from the London School of Economics. Like Mick Jagger, she ditched finance for art and for a time has been one of Spain’s leading jewelry designers, with stores in Barcelona and Madrid. She has a love for organic materials and a great sense for texture and weight, and a talent for juxtaposing silver, stone, wood, leather or whatever else she is working with in any given season. I have some of her earrings and necklaces and they’re the things I most treasure. I always get compliments on them. Her Barcelona store is in the Born.
Helena Rohner, L`espasseria, - tel: 13, 933.198.879

VINCON is a great housewares and gift store with a lot of the ingeniously designed stuff that Spain’s become famous for. We got some placemats with drawings of foosball players on them here during the world cup. If you want the perfect minimal silver vase or a cool notebook for someone back home, they’ve got it.
Vincon, Passeig de Gràcia, 96, - tel: 93.215.6050
www.vincon.com

If you want to do some hardcore shopping, go to the L’ILLA (Pronounced Leeya). There are tons of clothing and shoe stores here, and also the FNAC – a huge book and music store where you can stock up on homegrown electronica or flamenco cds. Yes this is a mall, but it still belongs to the civilized world. No food court here, just a café with real silverware.
L’Ila Diagonal, Avenida Diagonal 557

LIVE MUSIC

My sister-in-law Nora Navas’s boyfriend, Andres Herrera, is an actor now, like Nora, but he used to tour with a flamenco group. He recommends these places for live music:

TARANTOS – in the Plaza Real. “There’s a little bit of everything, dancers, singers, instrumentals. This isn’t a tourist tablao, you can see really good flamenco artists here. When Diego el Cigala is in town, he comes here.”

JAZZSI – in El Rabal neighborhood. “There’s something different here every night of the week. Cuban, jazz, flamenco…During the day it’s full of musicians because its right next to one of the best music schools in Barcelona.”

AND DON’T MISS:

The contemporary art museum,

MACBA, Pl dels Angels 1, 08001

http://www.macba.es/controller.php

So much GAUDI, so little time: if you have to pick just one Gaudi work, my choice is Parc Guell. But you really should see La Sagrada Familia too.

Bon Viatje!

to be continued…