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Located at number 36 of the original Rambla del Centro (better known as Capuchinos, and currently with the unification of all the Ramblas, in 1955, simply, the Rambla), the Refectorium was one of the restaurants that left its mark in Barcelona despite to its short history.
It had been built in the basement of an old warehouse of a commercial company. A medieval looking place. It was something new at a time when restaurants were expected to have a much more attractive presentation.
It had an iron door on its front porch. Inside, the antique furniture stood out, which was adorned with tapestries, amphorae and wrought iron figures, which gave a stately appearance to the premises, more typical of a museum than a restaurant.
Its director, Miquel Regàs, in the subsequent interviews he had to offer to the media on the occasion of its success, highlighted that the great welcome from the customers, who filled the establishment every day, was not only due to the magnificent decoration, but also for the service and quality of the products offered to diners.
The restaurant was inaugurated on Saturday, January 13, 1917. Despite a brief advertisement in La Vanguardia on page 2, the event was attended by all of the city's high society.
The fame achieved by the restaurant was so rapid that, just a few months later, on June 22, 1917, a tribute dinner was held in the restaurant for Dr. Manuel Prats Freixinet, on the occasion of his having been appointed permanent doctor of the Hospital de la Santa Cruz. . Nearly one hundred professionals from the medical field attended the dinner.
The ceremony of tribute was presented by the dean of the municipal medical body, Dr. Espadaler, who took the floor to offer the banquet to the honoree and, at the same time, warn those attending that, following a hygienic custom established on the occasion of the recent epidemics that devastated the city, it had been agreed by the organizers of the tribute to suppress the toasts.
During the stay in Barcelona of the scientist Albert Einstein in 1923 to give three conferences and hold a meeting with the Single Distribution Union, a dinner was held on February 25 at the Refectorium restaurant, where he was impressed not only by the decoration of the premises. but for the service.
After his death, when his descendants leafed through his personal diary, they only found two lines in which he commented on his trip to Barcelona, which were reduced to four personal names and the mention of an establishment, "the Refectorium."
It was reported in the press of those days that, on the occasion of the event held at the headquarters of the Single Union, Ángel Pestaña Núñez, anarcho-syndicalist and national secretary of the CNT, founder of the Syndicalist Party and deputy in the Cortes Generales for the province of Cádiz, spoke. , exposing the problem that the current worker found himself in.
Einstein responded with these words to Ángel Pestaña: "I am also a revolutionary, but in the scientific field."
This success in attendance also meant some problems in the day-to-day life of the establishment, since, due to the presence of important figures, the public wanted to see them up close at the entrance or exit of the agapes.
On more than one occasion, the director had to request the help of law enforcement to put order at the entrance of the restaurant and clear away the large number of onlookers who gathered at the door of the establishment.
Following its popularity, the restaurant began hosting concerts and art exhibitions. In its last stage, even cabaret shows.
Its final closure, due to bankruptcy, occurred in mid-1925. On February 21, on page 7 of La Vanguardia, it published a two-line advertisement announcing the sale of furniture and belongings due to forced eviction.
During its period of operation, the Refectorium had as its neighbor at number 34 the famous Excelsior Music-hall Cabaret, inaugurated in 1915. It was built on the old premises of the Projection Hall and founded by a group of billiards enthusiasts to celebrate their games. private. It closed its doors as Music-hall Excelsior in 1947.
After the Refectorium restaurant closed, its place on the Rambla was occupied by El Gato Negro, a dancing bar.
