Postcards from Barcelona
It was just the other day when I was looking through my bookshelf for another distraction from the quarantine life when I stumbled across a simple little reminder from better times.
As I was thumbing through the pages of my possible next read, I stumbled across a makeshift bookmark that reminded me of some of the good times…before COVID. It was a 4-by-2 calendar postcard from Boada’s Cocktails…the best-kept secret in the heart of Barcelona.
Boada’s is a tiny, old-school cocktail spot that has been just off Las Ramblas since the early ’30s. The bar is so unassuming that it hides in plain sight from the hordes of backpackers and tourists that pack the pedestrian roadway that runs through the center of the city. That makes this place a hit with locals young and old.
Boada’s Cocktails was first opened in 1933 by its namesake, Miguel Boadas, a bartender who perfected his trade at the infamous Floridita Bar in Havana…a place made famous after American author Ernest Hemingway made the joint his local when staying in Cuba. Boadas returned to his native Catalonia and went into business for himself, opening up the first bar devoted to cocktail craft in the city of Barcelona.
Word has it that the locals were skeptical of the new bar. They were used to cafe culture and not sitting atop stools in front of working barkeeps.
The drinking set of Barcelona soon caught on and warmed up to Boada’s. The place became a hit. The bar was frequented by the city’s creative class…local poets, playwrights, and other artsy-types would hang in the tiny triangular room as the staff, decked out in formal attire, shaking and stirring their cocktails to perfection.
What I always loved about this place when I first arrived in Barcelona nearly two decades ago was that it was a place to harkened back to another era. I heard about old-school cocktail bars like Boada’s in back in the States, but it was always referred to as a relic from a bygone era. Cocktail culture saw a resurgence in the United States in the past decade or so. But those new cocktail bars popping up in cities like New York, LA, and elsewhere are just a facsimile. A historical re-creation.
Boada’s has always been a living, breathing testament to that past…not because they tried to recreate it, but because they refused to change in the nearly 90 years, they have been open.
The bar is still family-owned. Passed down from generation to generation, which is likely why they have never found much reason to change what they do. That is what makes a bar like Boada’s Cocktails so great. Walking into this tiny art-deco style bar, with its warm lighting, warn wood ornateness and bartenders carefully practicing the art of making a damn good cocktail. Just being in their presence brings you back to a simpler time…one that only heard of but never experienced.
Full disclosure…I can be a bit of a hoarder. Always grabbing postcards when I stumble across them for any place I go. Bars, Museums, shops, restaurants. I collect them along with old airline tickets, rail passes, and entrance tickets for museums. I can’t even tell you why I collect them as I seemingly have no use for them. This little compulsion of mine drives my wife Suzy nuts as she finds our place littered with these little mementos.
Often times, I use these little remnants of my past travels as bookmarks for the latest novel I am reading, and often, they are forgotten about and left in the book long after I’ve finished with its pages. I forget about their existence for years until a stumble upon them accidentally, Like I did when I found that little calendar card from Boada’s. I am often left grateful for reminders of past travels such as these.
This is a place that I hit up daily when in Barcelona. Being that it is a ten-minute walk from the apartment building in the nearby Raval neighborhood where I usually stay, Boada’s is my local. Whether it is for an early afternoon drink, cocktail hour before dinner, or getting in a nightcap or two at the end of the night, I visit this place daily when in town.
Places like these that stand out to me when I visit a city for the first time. Finding a place like Boada’s, I feel as if I found a little slice of the city to call my own, even though I know I am not the first.
The last time I was there was when I got that card…Back in March 2017. It was my fourth time in Barcelona and my first trip overseas with my partner Suzy and a few close friends. We stopped in the city for a few days before heading on to Valencia for their yearly Feria. Nearly every day we were in town, we stopped at Boada’s for a drink. Sometimes they were for a quick cocktail. Other times we closed the place down. I loved those nights. They were some of those perfect moments you find when traveling with friends. No worries. Just good times and good drink without much thought for anything other than that moment.
I was grateful back in 2017, to share in the virtue of a place like Boada’s with those close to me and grateful how one little card can bring those memories back in an unclouded instant. Recalling good times like that trip to Barcelona is sorely needed during times like these.
Who knows what the next memories I stumble upon will bring.
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