They say that they had a terrible time – and who didn't – during the pandemic, that for years the local authorities – some more than others – have made their lives impossible due to time restrictions and limitations on the occupation of public space to plant their terraces . However, given what has been seen today in the resurrected La Paloma, no one would say that the restaurant sector is going through a bad time.
More than 600 people have crowded onto the dance floor of the legendary Raval festival hall to remember Saint Eulàlia, the poor patron saint of Barcelona, as she deserves, paying a self-homage to one of the most important and most helped activities in the local economy – 550 new licenses since January 2020, not counting transfers – and exercising nostalgia for a time and a city in which theaters abounded and in which one day everyone was young.
The festival of Saint Eulàlia, organized since 2018 by the Gremi de Restauració of Barcelona, has become one of the must-see winter events for politicians, artists, entertainers, journalists and, of course, businessmen and chefs from where it belongs – it is endorsed by a constellation of 32 Michelin stars – one of the European capitals of gastronomy or, as the Minister of Business and Work, Roger Torrent, has said, “one of the places in the world where the best is to eat and drink.”
A haloed Carme Ruscalleda, converted by photographic art into a modern Saint Eulàlia, has been the image of an event that has paid tribute to the actress Lola Herrera, 88 years old and still active on stage, of whom an indiscreet Jorge Javier Vázquez, hungry for spotlight after almost half a year of fasting from television, has revealed a until today unconfessed secret: “In the seventies, in Barcelona, Lola had a relationship with a member of the Haarlem Globetrotters.” A meeting “very much of the time,” the presenter added, repeating the version told by the actress, which concludes – up to this point we can tell – with “we went dancing.”
Lola Herrera has reviewed a relationship with Barcelona with family ramifications and that goes back to her first steps on the stages of venues that only remain in the sentimental memory of the city, such as the Talía, the Calderón or the Candilejas. In her intervention there was no lack of a feminist argument that springs from her personal experience: “I know what it is like to have to ask a husband's authorization for almost everything. We cannot be distracted if we do not want to lose those rights, because there is always a wolf in disguise with bad intentions who wants to steal what we treasure.”
It was perceived in the circles of La Paloma that the restaurant sector awaits with great interest and some concern the outcome of the negotiations that Jaume Collboni is holding to expand the government. More than one has become concerned – for no reason – when the start of the event has been delayed due to the absence of the mayor.
Ada Colau, her predecessor in office, was also missed at the appointed time. Finally, both the mayor and the former mayor, each on their own, have made an appearance in a territory that in their years at the head of the City Council was not particularly friendly with the leader of the commons.
An insurmountable barrier seems to stand between Collboni and Colau when they are close to each other, whether in La Paloma or, like yesterday, in the Pedralbes monastery. It is a wall that seems to grow every day when – it happened today in the Social Rights Commission – socialists and commoners get into fights that block the way to a left-wing tripartite pact and clarify it to an agreement between PSC and ERC without participation from BComú. Although tomorrow everything can change.
