Nothing like starting the day with a delicious brunch. Long live Yummy Sundays!
It is not easy to talk about gastronomy in ** Barcelona ** without ending up stuffed. And it is that the Catalan capital lives one of the sweetest moments in the foodie field, with an avalanche of news that can be difficult to digest.
with a jug of michelin stars served for all tastes, the city loops the loop with autumn bets that go in other directions, thus creating a more informal and relaxed offer, open to all audiences, or almost all.
There's no doubt, you know the time has come fall when your email inbox starts to fill up with emails related to gastronomy.
And if summer is more for rice on the beach and a glass of white wine with your feet in the sand, autumn is to launch all those initiatives that the summer heat does not allow to carry out, not for lack of desire, but for dedicated clientele.
But October is another roll and in the absence of sea, good are the new proposals. How are you.
Enjoy the fall!
For Martin Berasategui there is no better plan than to enjoy “some informal dishes, simple, but rich, when I don't have to work, that's how I conceive a brunch”.
It also seems that way they conceive it in the Hotel Monument, since together they have created the yummy sundays, a concept that shares with brunch the same carefree philosophy of late breakfast or early lunch but with a richer and more varied gourmet proposal based on salty and sweet with nods to Basque and Italian cuisine.
And it is that the romance between the renowned Basque chef and the Cadarso family, owner of the hotel, does not stop bearing good fruit.
Yummy Sundays, the most informal and fun proposal of the Hotel Monument
His restaurant Lasarte (3* Michelin) is well known and now they surprise with a much more informal and economical proposal, which is served accompanied to the rhythm of a DJ on the third Sunday of each month for €59, a fixed price that also includes cocktails and coffee and that is served in the hotel rooftop, with unbeatable views of Paseo de Gracia.
“This is wonderful. gastronomic journey that Catalonia is offering to the world”, Berasategui tells me.
And continues with a hopeful “Catalan gastronomy is in the best health it has ever been, and the best is yet to come thanks to everything that is being innovated and what we are going to be able to do”. And at least in his case – I think – he is right.
Late breakfasts and hotel breakfasts: paradise
And from a good area of Barcelona, to a good scoundrel As we like nothing more than contrasts, we booked a table at ** BENZiNA **, the first restaurant in Barcelona focused on authentic Roman cuisine.
Is in an old car workshop in the Barcelona neighborhood of Sant Antoni where this Italian restaurant was born that is a tribute to the best culinary offer in Rome merged by the eclectic New York cocktail bar and sound by the mythical hits from the 70s and 80s on original vinyl (his playlist is on Spotify, I'll confirm it before you, like me, ask the waiter) .
That is how the restaurateur Badr Bennis and the Roman chef, Daniele Moretti, they have managed to provoke an authentic “mamma mia” of admiration in the diner that as soon as they cross its doors begins a trip to the center of Italy with a sugarcane (and scoundrel) New York atmosphere, although it is the Roman style that is noticeable throughout the menu.
An old car workshop converted into a restaurant
A menu that ranges from the freshest antipasti such as the stracciata with Norway lobster & bottaga or the vitello tonnato even the pasta, all fresh and homemade, like the ricotta ravioli with spinach or fettucine with white ragout.
The sweet note of the evening comes from the hand of one of the best tiramisu in town (this is not a set phrase) and other desserts, such as Sweet of the Mamma, Made by the owner's mother every morning. Friends of storytelling, here is a tomato.
All the flavor of Rome on the table
away from Rome, the chef Sergi Palacín and the barman Ignacio Ussía they unite talent to erect a gastro-cocktail bar that advises according to the alchemical principles of flavor, and that is how The Alchemix.
There is nothing. These two young people from Barcelona have become alchemists to do magic and science with the principles of cooking and cocktails and to merge both worlds in search of the recipe for eternal life.
This can, why not, be in a cocktail of macerated oxtail, or in a low-temperature cod with bean tempeh. Or in their combination. Because The Alchemix unites worlds and proposals, the cocktail bar and the kitchen, that of Asia and the Mediterranean, to innovate with study.
The 'alchemists', Sergi Palacín and Ignacio Ussía, met working at the best restaurant in Asia (Gaggan, Bangkok, currently number 5 in the world) .
Of those powders, these muds; at night, yes. Magic, then, has more effect. The Alchemix proposes by concept.
It is made up of a cocktail area and a dining area where proposals with an alchemical sense appear, such as the foie temaki in an ice cream cone with nori seaweed (with foie mousse and alcohol macerated with amaretto) , oyster with tempered pork jowl accompanied by oyster ice cream, or cuttlefish gyozas and meatballs.
For those who, like me, do not forgive wine, The Alchemix has a wine list small but well-cared for, with fun references, “which fit us for flavor with this type of menu”, explains Palacín.
Because while you can also dine with cocktails, you don't have to. “It is not an establishment just for pairing. It is an establishment that combines worlds from within”. Your palate will verify it.
With much less science and much more light, the cataloged as the restaurant with the best views of Barcelona, you already have your embers ready. ** Blue Spot ** is just here, but given its popularity and loyal clientele, it seems like it's been around for ages.
How easily one gets used to good things. At Blue Spot you can eat very well or do it in a sublime way if you opt for starters such as grilled cockles with yellow curry, the cold crab opa with a touch of smoke or its spectacular Prawn rice with grilled ceps (mushrooms).
An uncomplicated product-based kitchen: grill, fish and rice, as its claim says. A simple headline for an impeccable execution in a huge venue that counts among its partners such popular names as Piqué and Shakira and that at night he turns into Blue Monkey, a kind of nightclub where the embers give way to cocktails and live music.
And it is that not every day you can eat, drink and dance accompanied by 360º views over the city and the sea. Welcome to Barcelona.