Cafe / Bar


We like beer. We like people who make beer. Which is why we like La Cervesera Artesana in Gracia, one of the few microbreweries in Barcelona.

It’s a little place, tucked away on a sidestreet off Corsega, but always seems busy, even when I’m not just there to watch the football, and rightly so. The  head brewer has been brewing for 10 years, and all the staff are well-informed about their products and happy to recommend and even provide tasters if you are not sure what to go for.

As well as the beer there is an assortment of tapas ranging from the bar-food standards croquetas and chicken drumsticks to the slightly more alarming (for us anglo-saxon types) ‘capi pota’ and callos (tripe).

There are various styles of beer. Dr DTS favours the honey beer while I prefer the more straightforward Toasted (IPA where I stands for Iberia) or the Rubia. Rather splendidly it’s brewed onsite so you can peer through the windows at the kettles where the beer is percolating away (or fermenting, or whatever the techincal term is!):

Given the pre-ponderance of mass-produced, chemically beers in Barcelona it’s a real joy to see a microbrewery doing so well – show them some love!

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Photos missing from this post at the moment folks – I’ll add them when I get back to BCN!

Mescladís is a small cafe and shop on the Plaça Sant Pere. The products are local and/or fair trade (although not cheap) and include juices, teas and coffees and dried goods.

The little cafe serves a daily ‘menu’ plus snacks like empanadas and cakes, and on most Saturdays they do a fantastic ‘Desayuno Mexicano’ with spicy huevos rancheros – call ahead to check that it’s on.

They also run cooking classes for adults which “use cookery as a jumping-off point for better understanding of the different cultures represented in our city” which sounds like a great idea – let me know if you are interested. The cost is between 35-45 euros and includes a 2 hour cooking class which includes the history and cultural context of the receipe, followed by another hour to enjoy eating the dishes while getting to know your fellow cooks, with a drink included.

Any profits are invested in the community through the Fundació Ciutadania Multicultural, which runs initiatives aimed at the social and cultural integration of immigrants with a specific focus on women and children. They also run cookery classes for young, disadvantaged people to provide them with skills that could help in the labour market.

Find out more about their classes and activities here: www.mescladis.org

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