In the electoral campaign we have heard the candidates for mayor of Barcelona discuss occupation, mobility, the city's green spaces, pollution, citizen insecurity... But what do they know about the city's gastronomic offer, apart from the licenses for terraces and the commercial opening hours?
In this final stretch of the campaign for the municipal elections on May 28, we have tried to find out the preferences of the mayors for breakfast, lunch and dinner. In which bars do they make coffee? At noon, a battle menu or finer dishes? And when they dine out, what do they like to order or where do they drop in? Perhaps some recommendations will surprise you.
Ada Colau explains that lately she has discovered a good proposal for breakfast: the blessed eggs from the BarBut, on Bonavista street. It is a small establishment in the lower part of the Gràcia neighborhood where careful Mediterranean cuisine is eaten, in small portions. Although the mayoress highlights her breakfasts, they also do lunch and dinner.
One of the favorite restaurants of the Barcelona En Comú candidate is Can Culleretes, “the oldest restaurant in Barcelona (three years before the French Revolution!) located in the Gòtic and very close to the Town Hall”. With market produce and traditional cuisine, it offers a menu of the day for 18 euros. “There are many dishes that I like, but I have a special predilection for artichokes and spinach cannelloni,” explains Colau.
He does not forget Guinardó, his childhood neighborhood. There is the restaurant Río Dragón. "We've known Gang, the owner, who also does magic shows for many years. I used to go with my parents when I was little, and now I go with my children." An institution in the neighborhood.
For breakfast he chooses a sandwich with sausage - "I like chorizo a lot" - for lunch, if he can, he opts for traditional cooking with a spoon. The Socialist candidate for mayor of Barcelona highlights the wide gastronomic offer in the city, "going through markets, small cafeterias, traditional or modern restaurants".
We ask you to highlight one, and bet on Quim from La Boqueria, a reference name in the city since 1987, in the most emblematic market, where you can eat classic Catalan dishes and quality tapas. Jaume Collboni also cites Can Culleretes, and ends his proposals with 5 Hermanos, in Canyelles, an informal neighborhood restaurant with a good menu of the day, grill, and frying pan on Thursdays. Collboni visited him a few weeks ago, together with the president of the Spanish government, Pedro Sánchez.
"But - acknowledges the mayor of the PSC - whenever I can I like to cook and eat at home with family or friends." He confesses to being a specialist in sea and mountain, rice dishes and all oven cooking in general.
The Esquerra candidate has a cortado and a croissant for breakfast. Depending on the day and the route, he has the first meal of the day at home, at Bar Cervantes -a traditional establishment in the Gothic Quarter- or at the Velodrome -the classic in the Eixample, on Muntaner street. At noon, Maragall stops by the Haiti bar, “one of the emblematic bars that still stands in the city and one of the most authentic in Barcelona, on Jaume I street, where until recently Mr. Joan still served his customers. "A memory for him, who recently left us, and was always attentive and always friendly, asking questions of the clientele." There the Republican candidate eats a piece of tortilla with onion and cod croquettes, all homemade, accompanied by bread with tomato and Catalan cream or a cut.
For dinner, he recommends the restaurant La Pau (at Anselm Clavé street, 19), a stone's throw from Colón, “where young people work who, thanks to the El Llindar Foundation, have a job and a second chance. A project without paternalism”, says the candidate. And what is eaten? “The bravas, the ceps croquettes or the fritters are very good. The rice is also spectacular or the baby squid with beans”.
Xavier Trias raises the level. Breakfast at the Farga on Beethoven street, next to Turó Park, “a cortado and a croissant”. To eat, when he can, he goes to the Bodega Sepúlveda, where he recommends the chickpeas, "nowhere do they make them like them". At dinner time you can find him at Paco Meralgo (Muntaner-Córcega), where "they make tapas and have a bar, they eat very well and they make a good steak tartare".
Another common option for the Junts candidate is the Fishhh restaurant, in Sant Gregori Taumaturg square, in Sant Gervasi-Galvany, where he recommends crab legs (on the web you can buy a half leg for 27 euros).
Daniel Sirera defines himself as "very bodegas", gastronomically speaking. He makes a list of recommendations for mythical places to have some tapas, and the variety of neighborhoods and locations cannot be denied. He begins with the La Plata bar (founded in 1945), a Gòtic classic, where you can eat typical fried anchovies. It continues with Xampanyet (a historic place in the city, in El Born), Casa Palet (a gourmet pantry with bacon, grilled meat and Catalan dishes, on Laforja street, in Sant Gervasi), Mantequerías Pirenaicas (cafes with various establishments specializing in potato omelettes with other ingredients and sandwiches with gourmet products), the Marcel bar (in Calle Santaló) and the Tramendu (in La Bordeta, a tapas temple between Sants and L'Hospitalet).
Among his favorite dishes when he goes for tapas at all these wineries, he highlights the Russian salad, the croquettes and the potato omelette. And he adds an extra weakness: the bravas of Tomàs, in Sarrià.
Anna Grau normally does not have breakfast: when she gets up she takes at home "an infusion of turmeric, lemon juice, ginger, honey and powdered ginseng" that helps her last until lunchtime. "If the comrades want to stop for coffee during the campaign, I take a cortado and a chocolate minicroissant, but it's not usual," she explains.
to eat? At home when you can. If it is necessary to eat out for work, he has a soft spot for Italians. Near the Ciutadans headquarters, in the Sant Antoni neighborhood, he has discovered the Neapolitan Pummarola pizzeria, which he strongly recommends. Near the Parliament he also likes Murivecchi, another Italian with good pasta proposals. Grau confesses a weakness “for Luigi from Via Laietana”, and he loves Italian cuisine, but also Mexican. In this case, he recommends the Oaxaca, from Pla de Palau.
Grau does not hesitate to point out Ada Parellada's Semproniana as his favorite restaurant, a reference for a lifetime. To make some informal sausages, he likes to go to La Tinaja del Born, where he meets "surprising friends", which the Ciudadanos candidate does not reveal.
For vermouth, Morro Fi, in La Bonanova, and also La Cueva de la Mari, "a vermouth bar in the heart of the Consell de Cent, to forget the superblock, where you eat very well and very pleasantly". The mayor of the orange party declares himself a fan of Asian food, but he still does not dare to give recommendations of this type to the Catalan capital.
You should also not bet on the paellas (or rice with things) at Red Fish, in the Moll de la Marina and with views of the Barcelona beach. “When we have good things to celebrate, we will surely go to Ca l'Isidre”, he comments. And he ends his gourmet route, of the most varied, in Barceloneta, citing Salamanca and Can Solé.
The Cupera candidate, Basha Changue, cooks meals at home, but if she goes out to eat, she likes Abarka cooperative, AlSur and Giulietta. She also mentions the Caldeira and the Poke itself. "Always, yes, away from the big restaurant chains."
*This article has been made possible thanks to the collaboration of RAC1 journalists who follow the municipal campaign with the different parties: Sílvia Solanas, Cesc Giró, Adrià Santasusagna, Mar Poyato, Laia Colomé and Maria Costa.
