It was next door to Petit Nomad, our café, and was located a few steps from Plaza Cataluña.
It has been over 100 years since that legendary café called Cataluña had a Michelin star.
It was 1916 when Joan and Josep Bachs took over the Café de Cataluña. Two years earlier, the establishment had been the first venture into the hospitality industry for businessman Ramón Perramón, who, for unknown reasons, left it in the hands of Joan Amils and Josep Bachs, according to Paco Vilar in Barcelona, ciudad de cafés (Barcelona, City of Cafés) (Ediciones Invisibles, 2013).
The Café de Cataluña occupied one of the most emblematic corners of Plaza Cataluña, right where Calle de Bergara begins and where ourPetit Nomad is located today, but a couple of numbers closer to the square itself. Specifically, and although it should be noted that the street numbering has changed slightly since then, this was the address: Plaza Cataluña, 4 and Bergara, 16. Today, the Triangle building stands at that address, housing a shopping center and various companies, and right next door is the latest Nomad café.
That café was open all day and was a lively gathering place in the heart of the city. It was, in fact, a café-restaurant, a type of establishment that was very popular at the time, as we explain here, and of which Barcelona had numerous examples that had the following in common: large spaces and long opening hours, and a menu varied enough to suit any time of day. In other words, you could have a quick or leisurely coffee and sit down to lunch or dinner at your own pace.
It also attracted the crowds who flocked to nearby venues such as El Dorado and Salón Cataluña in the afternoons and evenings to see plays, films, and other shows. Before the show started, patrons would usually have a drink at the entrance (perhaps a good coffee to keep them going throughout the evening) and then stop for dinner on their way out. The Catalonia's reputation grew and its cuisine improved. So much so that the prestigious Michelin Guide, in its first batch of awards distributed among Catalan establishments in 1936, included that café, the Café-Restaurant Catalonia.
Unfortunately, the Civil War and the dictatorship affected Café Cataluña. The closure of the El Dorado theater dealt a blow to the venue's revenue, and it ended up closing its doors in 1954. On the day the shutters came down, the local newspaper La Hoja del Lunes reported the news and dedicated these words to Café Cataluña: "During its forty-four years of existence, the most famous figures of contemporary local life passed through [its doors], and clubs and gatherings of all kinds formed around its tables." They also said that such was the fame achieved by the Cataluña that its waiters "became famous in Spain and beyond."