“So you flew to Barcelona just to check out the best bars?” Adrián at our hotel guest services seemed confused. But why not? Barcelona is a city famed not just for its history, arts, culture but also for its foodie – and drinkie – scenes. So again, why not fly in for a Barcelona bar tour? Bar-celona: the clue’s in the name. We were in town for just 36 hours and on a mission to find some of the best cocktail bars the city had to offer. I love a challenge…
2020 update: since my original post, some of the stops have climbed up the World’s 50 Best Bars list, so I have updated to reflect this.
Barcelona bar tour: The rustic-luxe one
Not strictly a bar (…though they do have one next door, Rebelot, top of our list for next time), Somorrostro is a delicious little spot in the back streets of Barceloneta, a pebble-skim from the beach.
Highly recommended by friends, we sipped on glasses of house vermut while drooling over the menu of organic, locally-sourced and brilliantly named – Crab “Don’t Touch My Eggs”, anyone? – small plates. The menu follows Slow Food principles of healthy, clean and fair food and they consider their plates to be KM.0 with all ingredients from local livestock, farmers and fishermen within 100kms of the premises. All organic, all bought directly from the local producer.
Anyway, back to the booze…
We started our evening of bar-hopping with an aperitif. Vermut (vermouth) is very classic, very Barcelona. Given my love of Negronis, I was already a fan, but served straight up, poured directly from the cask, garnished simply with ice cubes and a slice of orange: delicious.
Restaurante Somorrostro, Carrer de Sant Carles, 11, 08003 Barcelona
Barcelona bar tour: The “one for the road”
Back to the hotel for a glow-up. Amazing thing about Soho House Barcelona – actually, there are many amazing things about Soho House Barcelona – is that, while you get ready, you can order a bartender up to your room, complete with trolley, to fix-up your pre-game. The absolute joy of being served a round of delicious margaritas while lolling about in your bathrobe re-watching Black Panther. Bliiiiisss.
Soho House Barcelona, Plaça Del Duc De Medinaceli, 4, 08002 Barcelona
Barcelona bar tour: The “five-star dive bar”
I don’t think I’m cool enough for this bar ?
Feted by Vice Media, the guys at Two Schmucks are a little bit naughty (parental advisory on some of the signage – this is a family blog), but also very nice, doing their thing tucked away in the side streets of El Raval.
Cocktails are innovative, experimental…and a little bit weird – my Curry Colada had rum, madras spices, pineapple, kaffir and coconut. I still don’t know how I feel about the drink but as for owner Moe – who aptly describes it as a “five-star dive bar” – and his team, we love their vibe, we love their playlist…we’ll be back.
2020 update: since our visit, Moe has taken a bit of a step back and let 2 of his team – Juliette Larrouy and Pom Modeste, “Les Deux Schmucks” – take the reins. You’ll still see him popping up behind the bar from time to time, and the ethos remains the same. Aaaaand, they’ve just made it into the 2020 World’s 50 Best Bars list, dropping in at no. 26.
Two Schmucks, Carrer de Joaquín Costa, 52, 08001 Barcelona
Barcelona bar tour: The showstopper
A big motivation for this trip was to tick a bar or two off the list on my quest to visit as many of the World’s 50 Best Bars list as possible. Dropping in at no. 37 is Paradiso.
First, find a sandwich bar (clue, if it’s not the Rooftop Smokehouse pastrami bar, this isn’t going to work). Second, find your way to the meat locker door. Third, open it…
You’ll either find yourself surrounded by giant hams (wrong door) or you’d have stepped into paradise, the friendliest speakeasy (EVERYONE behind the bar will say hi when you walk in) with the craziest cocktail list developed by bar manager and master mixologist Giacomo Giannotti.
We went for ‘Where’s the Daiquiri?’ (Rum, coconut, yellow chartreuse, vanilla and mint shrub, ginger sponge) and ‘Casablanca’ (tequila reposado, amaro, lemon & ginger juice, mint, fig marmalade, amaretto). A dash of Alice in Wonderland whimsy, a bit of theatre and whole lot of fun: oh, and a great soundtrack – loved their Monday night playlist.
And yes, it was a Monday: a school night. Yet EVERYBODY seemed to be out, definitely all the cool kids…well we were in their main stomping ground, the narrow, winding streets of trendy-sexy-boho El Born.
If you can find your way in, good luck trying to leave.
2020 update: since our visit, it’s been steadily climbing up the Best Bar list, currently sitting at no.19. We were clearly right about this place…
Paradiso, Carrer de Rera Palau, 4, 08003 Barcelona
Barcelona bar tour: The quick pit-stop
2020 update: I hadn’t originally included this one, but as its profile has increased significantly since, I thought I would drop it a mention. Staying in El Born, we nipped into Dr Stravinsky on the way home. Owned by Grup Confiteria, the same peeps behind Paradiso, they clearly have a knack for theming.
Like a mad scientist’s lab, the walls are lined with jars upon jars of botanicals (…or was it body parts? Hard to tell in this light) and vintage wooden medicine cabinets filled with old-school distillation equipment, all ready for the alchemists to get to work. Leading the team is Antonio Naranjo, ex of Himkok in Oslo, who blends and distils many of the featured potions on-site (wonder where he got that idea from, hmm..?).
It was late, I was kind of cocktailed out. I ordered something, it was green. I only took a couple of sips and then we peaced out to eat Doritos back at the hotel.
It did, however, make #52 in the Best Bar list (it actually made the dizzy heights of 25 in 2019 – its a tough crowd), so I’ll definitely be giving it a second chance next time. Earlier in the evening, though…
Dr Stravinsky, Carrer dels Mirallers, 5, 08003 Barcelona,
Barcelona bar tour: The original
It truly is: it’s the oldest cocktail bar in Barcelona. Just off La Rambla, with its Art Deco looks and walls dripping with history – they even have staff that have worked there 40+ years – it’s the oldest of the old school. It was opened back in 1933 by the eponymous Miguel Boada, who learned the trade in his uncle’s bar, a little place in Havana called El Floridita. Yes, that one: home of the daiquiri, favourite of Hemingway, trap of the tourist (guilty, sorry…).
Miguel exported some of the Floridita vibe back to Barcelona, attracting a similar cool, classy, artsy crowd dotted with the odd famous face: local intellectuals, actors and musicians, artists like Miró, Hemingway (of course)…
None cooler than us (jk). We popped in at lunchtime after spending the morning at Gaudi’s Palau Güell (see, we do culture before cocktails…), to be greeted by head bartender Adal, resplendent in a bow tie. Pretty impressive at 1pm…but it’s that kind of place. I asked for a recommendation, and he magicked up a Negroni (one of my faves, as you know) with mezcal from their extensive list of cocktails. When I say extensive, I mean their list runs to 1,261 cocktails: 961 from the house, the rest ‘international’. Just don’t ask them for an espresso martini because they don’t do coffee and don’t have an espresso machine (…though they will give it go and make a version with straight-up booze).
That’s what I love about places like this – at this time of day- when you get a bartender who is knowledgeable and passionate, who knows the list inside out and is just happy to chat. “It’s a cathedral of cocktails”, said Adal. What does that make him? A bishop? That’s what it says on his Facebook. I’d buy that.
2020 update; Boadas was recently named Timeless International Bar, presented by the Tales of the Cocktail Foundation at the 14th annual Spirited Awards®. Timeless, indeed.
Barcelona bar tour: The classic
Keeping it classy, we hop on a bus over to L’Eixample, and to the iconic Dry Martini by Javier de las Muelas. Pure elegance, with its leather banquettes, shelves of vintage crystal and white-jacketed bartenders, you half expect James Bond to stroll over from the Baccarat table and order his usual, “shaken…”. You know the rest.
So how do you make the perfect dry martini? Barely 2.30pm and we are already hitting the hard liquor (…so what was the Negroni?) with an impromptu masterclass from Xavi. 1/2 London Dry Gin, 1/2 French Vermouth, 1 dash orange bitters, squeeze lemon rind, add a green olive.
That was dry martini no. 1,088,037… well they have been doing this here for 40 years, they’re pretty good at it. Not just at the martinis, they have a comprehensive cocktail list and a hidden restaurant, ‘Speakeasy’. Though it’s not currently on the the Worlds 50 Best Bars list, it did hang out there for 7 years straight and is still very highly regarded by the industry. And yes, it is refined, it is sophisticated – but don’t let that intimidate you. Head there of an afternoon and you’ll find the staff friendly and relaxed: they they even let me hang out behind the bar (sssshhh! Don’t tell!).
Absolutely legendary.
Dry Martini, Carrer d’Aribau, 162-166, Eixample, Barcelona, 08036
Barcelona bar tour: The VIP party spot
We’d done cool, classic, cheeky and crazy. We’d done whimsical, artsy, rustic and elegant. What were we missing? Ultra-glam and super-sexy, that’s what. Good thing we stumbled across Boca Chica, then…
Staying in L’Eixample, luxe and loungey Boca Chica is located above high-end restaurant Boca Grande (Big Mouth, Little Mouth…see what they did there). It’s a bit of a late-night celeb hang, so it seems a fitting place to end our tour – however, it was only 5pm so we were far too early for any A-list shenanigans, but just in time to grab a last cocktail before heading back to the airport.
The cocktail list was comprehensive and clever, but definitely not cheap. Most were around 15/20€, but they do have a ‘Primera Clase’ list that cost a hell of a lot more. I couldn’t really tell from the menu whether they were singles or sharers, but at 40-90€ each, those glasses better be BIG. I was totally tempted by the Jet Set (Tequila, fresh raspberries, vermouth, lime, cane sugar) and the Kill Bill (Crystal Head Vodka, passion fruit, lime, mango, spicy honey), but I stayed in my lane (and budget) and settled for their version of my favourite Spicy Margarita (Don Julio, lime, agave, jalapeño liqueur). A big benefit of beating the crowds? The staff could really take their time to prepare our drinks: very strong, very yum and beautifully presented.
Speaking of presentation…
Come for cocktails, but stay for the decor because it really is gorgeous: ostentatious, pseudo-colonial glitz from the mind of Lázaro Rosa Violán (who, coincidentally, was involved in the design of our Soho House hotel interiors). Think zebra pelts, faux mammoth tusks, polished wood and portraits. They even have a VIP room in the basement (aka, the loos), full of vintage mirrors and stunning design touches. I spotted a piano, but apparently, they have been known to have DJs and even a bar pop up in there (having spent multiple nights bopping in the bathrooms at Hï in Ibiza – this must be a Spanish thing).
Very OTT, just like me.
A fab way to sign-off an epic adventure. Would love to come back and check it out after dark, if they’ll let me past the velvet rope…
Boca Chica, Passatge de la Concepció, 12, Eixample, Barcelona 08008
Barcelona bar tour: bottom line
Barcelona is one of my all-time favourite cities for anything, full-stop, but for bars and boozing it is exceptional. You don’t have to be hardcore and hit 8 bars (actually it was 9: we snuck into Negroni in El Raval after Two Schmucks, but only stayed long enough to share one drink. Not much to report) in 36 hours. Go for the Gaudí, ramble La Rambla, munch your way round La Boqueria and marvel over Messi at Camp Nou. Just save a couple of hours to slip in one or two drinking dens: there are so many to choose, from, the mixology is on point and with the level of hospitality – the warmth and the welcome we received pretty much everywhere we went was incredible – well, it would just be rude not to.
“So you flew to Barcelona just to check out the best bars?”. Hell yeah, Adrián, hell yeah.
What are your favourite bars in Barcelona? What did we miss? Hit me in the comments below.
