Category: General

One of Barcelona’s hottest spots is also one of its hidden gems. Known to foodies the world around, but seemingly not so well known to the locals we’ve talked with, 41° is one of the latest projects from the culinary minds behind ElBulli.

Albert Adrià and his team also run Tickets, a widely known tapas bar on Avinguda Paral-lel, near Placa d’Espanya. Tickets is very visible from the corner, 41° — which draws its name from the 41st parallel upon which Barcelona sits — is more discreetly tucked into a small, 16-seat space right next door. The signage is very low-key and almost invisible from the street. And what would be the point of a bolder visible presence? Everyone entering the doors has made reservations weeks, or up to three months in advance online. It’s just about the only way to get one of those 16 seats. They don’t need foot traffic to fill them; they couldn’t accommodate walk-ins anyway.
Continue reading “Forty One Degrees of Awesome”

Imagine our surprise upon returning to our apartment tonight after a pleasant walk through well-lit streets just coming to life at 9:00 p.m. — the start of the nightlife in Barcelona — and happening across a cocktail bar located directly next door and named for one of Brian’s favorite classic cocktails:  Negroni Cocktail Bar.

The place was empty when we first arrived — most people are just starting dinner at 9 p.m. here — so we had a chance to chat with Daniel, our bartender, who turned out to be one of the owners. (Mostly in Spanish, even!) Continue reading “A Bar Named for a Favorite Cocktail”

First night in Barcelona, we’d just finished filing a report at the police substation under the fountains in Plaza Catalunya. The heavens had opened while we were underground and it was raining and wet, but that didn’t slow down the energy of the Plaza one bit. Folks were still hurrying hither and yon in this very popular and busy square, which sits about a half of a kilometer from our apartment.

Time to shake off the bad juju that kicked off our trip by ducking in out of the rain at the Cafe Catalunya across the street. In dry weather, we’d have selected one of their tables on the plaza itself. After all, sitting out on a public plaza with a bottle of wine and watching the world go by is one of those quintessential European experiences I wish we could pull off in the U.S., but our archaic liquor laws generally don’t allow for such nonsense. Continue reading “Our First Tapas in Barcelona”

Watch out for the pickpockets, they said. Watch out for the gypsies, they said. Watch out for the street urchins, they’ll rob you blind, they said. Barcelona is notorious for its various kinds of street thieves.

So I planned accordingly. I bought us belt loop wallets that hang down the inside of our pant legs. I bought a secure travel bag reinforced with steel mesh so the cross-body strap and the side panels cannot be slashed, with locks on it for the various zippered pockets so they can’t be surreptitiously opened. We’re employing best practices of not carrying everything we have, nor keeping everything in one or two places — spreading things out and alternating what we’re carrying. We have photocopies of all our important documents.

And yet …

Continue reading “Earning a Tourist Merit Badge in Barcelona”

It’s been observed that my last post contained a couple of cursory nods to non-foodie features of the cities we’ll be visiting, but it really read like a food blog. Guilty as charged.

Here’s the thing. We are not taking a “tourist” vacation with a checklist of sites and museums we must visit. We are taking a three-week break from our daily lives to experience life in Spain, wandering its streets, finding what we find, seeking out the places the locals frequent, meeting them and learning about the way Spaniards live. Continue reading “Living vs. Touring in Spain”