My next destination after Madrid was Barcelona. I eventually found a couch surfer, then filled my interactive map (find at bottom) with cafés and was ready to explore this more-hyped city of Spain. However with each passing day in the Catalan town I missed Madrid even more. In Barcelona I didn’t find the neighborhood vibe, small streets and plazas, interesting street art or the individual cafés that caught me in the capital. Probably I just chose the wrong streets and cafés in Barcelona. It was hard to judge these books by their cover. But exactly for that reason, I want to share the few hits I did find – so that you don’t read the wrong books first.
Espai Joliu: A rustic space doubling as a café and concept store full of cacti, local ceramics and coffee table magazines.
Nømad: The renowned specialty coffee roaster, with three small coffee bars, that happen to also serve the best ice cream.
Caravelle: My best restaurant find. Here, local and organic ingredients are crafted into hip dishes with creative twists.
(Satan’s Coffee Co: Had it not been for their renovation, I assume that this third wave coffee shop would have been on my hit list as well. Their bold, japanese-influenced menu sounds divine.)
Like I said my list was long. I know that I partially just chose the wrong places to go to. There’s a new list of specialty coffee shops (see @waytocoffee) that I regret not having made it to. Apart from those, different mood, weather and company might have made my “average” finds to “favorite” finds. But for now these are the four cafés in Barcelona that stay in my memory.
Espai Joliu
The concept store/café is in El Poblenou, the north-eastern end of town. This area has a mix of business offices, industrial buildings and construction sites; it was far from touristy and not worth visiting on its own. But worth visiting for Espai Joliu: a rustic pretty space with an authentic and relaxed vibe.
Handmade ceramics, succulents and coffee table magazines occupy the front half. A step up, in the back, you will find the the casual and calm café space. It was filled with regulars working from their laptops or meeting up for a chat. I loved the down-to-earth atmosphere and genuine feeling of the baristas behind the bar.
Between sweet and savory, bites and meals, I chose the tostada con aguacate (6€): toasted bread slathered in velvety avocado mash, topped with bitter-fresh arugula, juicy sun-dried tomatoes and flakes of salt. Later, alongside my laptop-work, I had their banana bread – my “chocolate ice cream” for cafés – the baked good by which I can best judge a café. And luckily the moist banana bread confirmed my impression of Espai Joliu. From beginning to end, this lush and pretty spot was my favorite café in town.
Carrer de Badajoz, 95, 08005
Mo-Fr: 9:30-19:00, Sa: 10-15, closed Sundays
// vegan and gf options, free wifi, specialty coffee
// website
Nømad
Nømad strikes me as one of Spain’s most renown specialty coffee roasters. In Barcelona they represent themselves in three distinct locations. First, in the “roastery’s home”, which is just around the corner from Espai Joliu in the El Poblenou district. Next, at the Nømad Coffee Lab tucked away in an old alley downtown. Lastly, at the most instagrammable Nømad Every Day.
Nømad Coffee Lab
My first visit was to their small, dim coffee lab in the old town. It was set up in a very coffee-focused manner. Every roast was depicted by flavor and origin on the large menu that covered the wall. Remarkably the baristas didn’t hide behind a fancy machine, but left the lab spacious by extracting their coffees with the small Modbar modular espresso system. I opted for the one and only “special” drink: Toast Cappuccino.
The baristas explained me their signature drink as being a cappuccino with olive oil and bread crumbs. Well they forgot to mention that the coffee wasn’t just toasted ingredients, but also had fruity components. Toast, not as in toast, but as in Spanish Toast, tostada con tomate. That means the crusty bread is smeared with garlic, olive oil, salt and shredded tomatoes. I like fruity coffees, but not that fruity. However I give Nømad big time credit for not losing innovation in today’s, sometimes quite dogmatic, coffee scene.
Coffee Lab & Shop: Passage Sert, 12, 08003
Mo-Fr: 8:30-17:30
// only coffee, best for a short stay
Nømad Every Day
Nømad’s third location is the one you’ll most frequently spot on Instagram. In the vibrant district of El Raval, this deep space, with a swirly-red tiled floor and a photogenic letter board menu is also best for a grab and go. Apart from the usual transparent coffee, they serve nitro cold brew and kombucha on tap. I hear the cookies are superb as well and can attest to this statement when applied on the ice cream. They get it from DelaCrem, which deserves to be called the best in town. My almond-amaretto and pistachio flavors were super smooth, while dense, creamy and bursting in natural flavor.
Nømad Everyday: Carrer de Joaquín Costa 26
Mo-Fr: 8:30-18:30, Sa-Su: 10-19:00
// coffee, kombucha, craft beer, ice cream, pastries; best for a short stay/to go
So whether you classify yourself as a traveling coffee geek, a roaming experimentalist, a gypsy booch-lover or are just roaming town for the best ice-cream – Nømad has all wanderers covered!
Caravelle
It was my last evening in Barcelona, and I wasn’t quite satisfied with my finds in town yet. Luckily a friend of mine from Berlin, recommended me a rooftop yoga class followed by dinner at Caravelle, which was one of her favorite restaurants. It turned out to be my best evening.
Caravelle is the epitome of my favorite type of eatery: local, organic, homemade foods and craft drinks in a beautiful, small interior. The evening menu offered dainty plant-based creations with home-pickled toppings as well as comfort meals, such as happy smoked pigs or buttermilk-fried chicken with feta-chili poblano sauce. Accompanied by craft beers, brewed on-site in their nano brewery, natural wines, or homemade cocktails I can’t see whom Caravelle can’t appeal to. Every item seemed to have its own twist and was beautifully presented on vintage tables in the dim and industrial atmosphere.
I chose something for a small hunger: roasted miso-cauliflower with roasted carrots, kale puree, and crispy baby beets. It was comforting, but refreshing with multiple matching flavors between soft, crispy and crunchy formations.
After this dinner I wished for a few more free days to sail back to Caravelle. For example, for brunch. Yes, they pose all the “hipster” dishes, but with unconventional twists, turning them into signature creations. French toast with whipped maple butter, mascarpone, fresh berries and honeycomb. Or turkish eggs with lemon & confit garlic yoghurt, chili browned butter, green herb salsa and flat bread. Caravelle doesn’t make their food a functional device, to shuffle through instagrammers. Caravelle creates an authentic atmosphere where trendy customs are overshadowed by quality and artistry.
Carrer Pintor Fortuny 31, 08001
Mo: 9:30-17:30, Tu-Fr: 9:30-1:00, Sa: 10-1:00, Su: 10-17:30
// fine comfort food, also vegan and gf options
// website
Satan’s Coffee Co
I assume that this specialty coffee shop would be part of my favorite list, had they not been renovating their main location in Gótico. I did make it to the second location though, in Eixample, which is attached to the boutique hotel Casa Bonay. Here they didn’t have the promised “hangover busting Japanese breakfasts or classics with twists, steering clear of clean eating clichées” that I spied out on their website. But they did have a quite legitimate beverage menu:
• six coffee drinks
• three fermented drinks
• two hot chocolates
• one bastard drink (that’s affogato)
“All prices include single origin, direct trade, purified water 55db loud music. No Bullshit, No Wi-Fi, No Decaf, No Vanilla, No Fun for Children, Fuck Yelp, Fuck TripAdvisor.”
I agree, so serving two hot chocolates with that motto seems a bit controversal. Apparently not all love sin azucar. No sugar means no sweetener, no stevia or any other BS, it’s 100% chocolate. My dream-come-true, and tied on the list of the best hot chocolates I’ve ever tried (next to Bonanza Coffee in Berlin and Hermetic Coffee Roasters in Hamburg).
That deep, intense cacao drink and the juicy zucchini bread made my visit to their Eixample café nice. However I can’t wait for next time to experience the “punk attitude hand in hand with quality, style and professionalism” at the base in Gótico.
Gótico: Carrer de l’Arc de Sant Ramon del Call, 11
Mo-Sa: 9-18, Su: 10-18
Example: Gran Via de les Corts Catalanes, 700
daily 7-18:00
Other Coffee Shops:
The above mentioned places were the ones that stood out to me. However if I were a local, I could imagine a handful other spots becoming my favorites as well. For example Bermont Coffee. This café is simple, calm, unpretentious, and doesn’t make bad avocado toast.
Or Departure Coffee Co, a more spacious café with an eclectic mix of chairs in the industrial interior. It’s the perfect spot for some laptop work and sweet or savory bites throughout the day. They also whisk up pure matcha tea, and can satisfy the evenings with craft beer or local wines.
Lastly, in El Poblenou, SKYE Coffee is a favorite among the third wave coffee crowd. This minimalistic space has its own charm. As an architectural work for itself, it is the spot where you can wind down and take a break from the city’s tourist buzz.
About Flax & Kale:
I shouldn’t end my post without a mention of Flax & Kale, the healthy restaurant that multiple friends told me I would love. If I were in here for longer possibly with company and desperate for food, I’d probably go on raving about this place too. It’s quite an institution that covers the widest spectrum of what people call healthy. But I ended up not raving about it, because travelling by myself, a big, functional restaurant like this just didn’t fit for a single person idyllic café stop.
So what are they about? Plant-based meals, a professional kombucha lab, cold-pressed juices, paleo pastries, own cabins to devour lush açai bowls, rainbow raw-vegan plates, lavish avocado toasts, gluten-free pizza sessions . . . But, because it is a “wait-to-be-seated” place with hired staff and a dim atmosphere, I didn’t spend much dough here.
But I give them credit, those miso-kale chips, the gluten-free turmeric ginger donut and its equivalently spiced chai were impressive. I’ll be back with company one day.
It all depends . . .
Visiting a city depends on so many things, one impression can never count for all. For now, I’d recommend Madrid over Barcelona, to authentically experience a Spanish metropolis. However I’m guessing the city does have something to it, that I missed. So feel free to advise me why I should come back! For now though, these are the cafés in Barcelona that I would recommend to anyone. Find my sources (below) so you can perfect your visit!
Sources:
- Way To Coffee: coffee blogger from Berlin who writes specialty coffee shop reviews around the world
- European Coffee Trip: online magazine about specialty coffee in Europe
- Alexandra Müller Blog: blogger from Bordeaux who writes about vegan cafés, specialty coffee and artisan bakers ( French)
Yippee… another Ookie dough post! Its great to see how you experienced Barcelona. I imagine myself enjoying the first stop: Espai Joliu . It is funny how different lines, from green and organic to white and sterile come together in the coffee culture. It is also interesting, rather more sad, to see how tourism is over-running towns; where it feels like in many of Europe’s nicer cities have become some variant of “Downtown Disneyland” or “Mainstreet USA” Barcelona seems to be suffering the most. I wish this problem had a simple answer..
I also thought that maybe Satan’s Coffee Co maybe started in response to Public Coffee Roaster’s questions…. clearly implicating my wife’s answer “Beer” as the more plausible answer.