There was once an open Barcelona, which lived and let live, an example of freedoms even when they were denied and persecuted. In that Barcelona that is slowly, inexorably and sadly being lost, there were also bullfights, up to three bullrings at the same time.
In that Barcelona and in the heart of the Chinese neighborhood (formerly District V, now Raval), in 1929, Leopoldo Gil, from Teruel and a CNT railway worker, founded on Aurora Street the precedent of what seven years later and only seven days before that black July 18, 1936, it would be Casa Leopoldo.
Leopoldo was succeeded at the head of the business by his son Germán Gil “El Exquisito”, a post-war bullfighter in the harsh countryside of Salamanca fleeing from the concentration camps. Those who knew him say that rarely does a nickname respond so faithfully to the person and his personality. When Germán died, at the beginning of the nineties, it was his daughter Rosa who took the reins until November 2015, when, fed up with many things, she left and delegated to her daughter and this, a couple of years later, in two names as prestigious in the kitchen as Romain Fornell and Óscar Manresa.
The history of Casa Leopoldo was written by Arturo San Agustín in a book with a significant title, La Nena del Leopoldo. Rosa Gil was always a forward-thinking woman. She married José Falcón, a Portuguese bullfighter of strong courage, and the marriage lasted only eight months, since on August 11, 1974, he was mortally wounded by the bull “Cuchareto” from Hoyo de la Gitana, thus being the last bullfighter killed in the Monumental. from Barcelona.
That indisputable presence of bullfighting in the people and on the walls of Casa Leopoldo, hopefully will be respected in the reopening that is announced for next March 18, according to La Vanguardia with the signature of Hada Macià. The marketing manager of the business group that drives the business expresses the desire to preserve the authenticity of Casa Leopoldo, in the kitchen and decoration, adding that the renovation that is being carried out will not affect the structure of the premises, respecting identifying elements. , among them -textual quote-: “Those with bullfighting aesthetics, although the paintings of this theme will not have as much prominence” (sic). Prominence that by the way already diminished when Fornell and Manresa began an adventure that the pandemic took away and that in 2022 ended up being a Chinese restaurant, also of short life.
Whores and soldiers, workers and intellectuals, Falangists and communists passed through that Leopoldo House, that of its founder, that of “El Exquisito” and that of Rosa.
He went there daily to eat and write his novel Al Margin, André Pierre de Mandiargues. Lorca, Dalí, Buñuel, cupletistas, businessmen, politicians, musicians, footballers... Bullfighters sat at his tables.
But, without a doubt, it was Manuel Vázquez Montalbán and his detective Pepe Carvalho who put it in the tourist and gastronomic guides.
Vázquez Montalbán gave the Reds back the pleasure of eating well without having to justify themselves. At Casa Leopoldo the fish was what was bought daily at the neighboring Boqueria Market, when the Boqueria was a market and not selfie meat. Their recipes, their dishes, inheritance from the old food house, Grandpa Leopoldo's in the living room and the women in the kitchen. Rosa was always upstairs, between the tables, with the customers.
There, in a corner of one of the rooms decorated with mosaics, photographs and posters of bulls (those that the new ownership intends to liquidate) Vázquez Montalbán's table.
And there, also gatherings organized weekly, monthly, by groups of regulars, to talk about everything, in a playful celebration of friendship and knowledge.
And in those gatherings, in those celebrations, also the bulls.
Fans, from here and from other bullfighting regions, came to Casa Leopoldo for its gastronomy and because there the conversation was surrounded by history and the atmosphere. At Casa Leopoldo bullfighting was felt, smelled, and heard. And it was savored in the tail stew. And Casa Leopoldo was our temple.
Everyone passed by, bullfighters, managers, ranchers, businessmen (old Don Pedro Balañá was a great friend of grandfather Leopoldo), journalists, fans. These, for example, in their monthly “Tertulia del Tendido 2”.
On July 4, 2017, the bullfight took its last walk at Casa Leopoldo. With the excuse of remembering the centenary of Manolete, a group of Catalan bullfighting resisters summoned fifty intellectuals and people related to the cause and the painters Lluis Ventós and Joan Garcés, among others, sat at the tables; the sculptors Joan Mora and Joan Gardy; writers such as Carlos Abella, Salvador Balil and Fernando del Arco; the psychiatrist Leopoldo Ortega Monasterio... Also the bullfighter Luis Francisco Esplá and with them Catalan fans, some, like the aforementioned del Arco, with the privilege of having seen Manolete in La Monumental...
I hope the graphic and handcrafted documents with allegories and bullfighting portraits on the walls of the “new” Casa Leopoldo do not disappear, but in any case no one will be able to erase his bullfighting memory.
Casa Leopoldo, the sign of the times. What times?
