Adonis Cafe and El Jabali Restore Sabrina’s Faith in Barcelona: aka Adventure Time (Rhombus!)
There are some days that remind me why I love Barcelona. Yes, it’s been up and down. Yes, sometimes I can’t stand the Catalonian pride that surrounds me every day. But other times, I spend a day like today, at two of my favorite local spots. Given that we’re in the middle of finals week, having my spirits uplifted right now is a feat, so you know these places are special.
Started the day off with Clase Juanjo, which was a presentation and Juanjo rambling for a bit. Minimal concentration necessary. Following class, I decided to take my Lazarillo de Tormes — which I’ve been trying to get through for ages and need to finish, um, yesterday for a paper — and go to one of the best places I’ve found during my stay: Adonis Cafe.
I found out about it on a blog listing every cafe with free wifi in Barcelona. It was in the Gracia section, the only one I pay much attention to since it’s easily my favorite neighborhood in the city (the only place with real local flavor unmarred by tourists). A while back, my friend Erin and I walked over there after Clase Juanjo. I believe my intention then, too, was to read Lazarillo. This is what we found:
Basically, it’s got a nice old-world, acoustic coffeehouse charm, with leather seats (you can’t see them well in the pictures, but they’re near the windows and in the back), a friendly staff, really tasty-looking chips and guac which I plan to try sometime soon, great location, and a 1,15 cortado. And yes, the bartender guy in this photo (taken from my guia zonas wifi blog) is in fact the guy who has served me on both visits.
While there, I sat right by the window in a nice comfy chair and got through about 70 pages of Lazarillo and 10 pages of La Metamorfosis by Kafka, feeling accomplished, productive and sufficiently caffeinated. All the while with random DMB covers of Tom Petty and such playing in the background.
I returned home to make lunch and was visited by Erin, of Cafe Adonis fame. She had been in Madrid, Granada and Seville for about 5 days and wanted to give me her homemade, patented guide to the region, as I’m off to Madrid and Seville Friday night. I told her I planned to go to El Jabali in a few minutes and she decided to tag along.
We found El Jabali on one of our patented Erin-Sabrina adventures. We had gone to the Palacio Real, I believe, wandered in the gardens, tried to gain access to the Palacio-cum-ceramics-museum (odd choice) but gave up at the 3E (*gasp*) price, seen some Gaudi-designed fountains featuring dragons, a weird playhouse, a cool gazebo/arbor with a couple making out under it — would have made an adorable picture, but the sketch factor was just a little high, even for me — and a bamboo forest. It was odd. And an adventure. We were already on the green line, so we decided to stop at any random stop and wander. Spontaneity has never been my strong suit, but Europe makes me more amenable to the idea of this whole “no plans” thing. So we chose Paral.lel and hoped.
We found El Jabali, of the beautiful window display and heated outdoor tent, about a block away from the Metro. We chatted for about 2 hours over coffee on Erin’s end and a wonderful 1,60E full glass of white wine on my end (as you can see). Basically, we fell in love.
This time, I wanted my white wine again, so over it, we caught up from the weekend, claiming we’d study when I finished my glass. More than an hour later, I ordered a second and we finally got down to work, but of course at that moment 4 older Barcelona businessmen came to have their after-work drink, right next to us. So much for our studying.
But they were hysterical to listen to. We overheard them saying that we looked very “intelectual” because of my reading glasses, her computer, and my book and notebook, pen poised. And then one of them got a phone call from one “Karen” on his “mobile,” and he was speaking some intelligible yet error-ridden and accent-laden English. Erin and I started smiling as we read, particularly when the “mobile” was passed to one of the companions who really spoke about two words of English and the first one tried to coach him. We were noticed, and a friendship was begun.
We struck up a conversation, and it turned out that they were economists from Forward Economics. One was Asturian — we chatted momentarily about how Raquel, my middle Spanish sister’s, fiance is Asturian — and the others, or at least one, Ramon, was from Salamanca. We talked about Extremadura, California, Don Pelayo, wine, studying in Spain, the fact that Erin had a boyfriend, etc. etc. Over the course of this fine discussion, we were given pieces of jamon serrano, chorizo, queso, and participated in a wine tasting of an excellent Rioja from the Soria region so that our companions could determine which was better, California wine or Spanish wine. We also came away with their business card, several offers to pay us to teach them better English, several compliments on our Spanish accents, and our bill paid in full — meaning my two 1,60E glasses of wine were actually free, not to mention the glass and a half of Rioja they generously offered. Ramon also told us to put anything we ordered at El Jabali in the future on his tab because he knew the owner.
True to my word, I emailed like I said I would a couple of minutes ago with our email addresses. Gonzalo, the main one who spoke English-ish, said I was welcome in his house in Asturias anytime. I also neglected to mention they invited us to their house in Girona, told us what train they were taking the next day and from where. That would be my 2nd “spend-a-weekend-in-my-house-in-Girona” invitation in 2 weeks, if anyone’s keeping score. Needless to say, we are not. But I would not be averse to a dinner with them. They’re all attached and it was entirely un-sketchy.
Erin and I didn’t get any work done, but El Jabali became an adventure in and of itself. And these extremely nice and generous older men became the poster children of my rediscovery of this city. Yes, Barcelona can feel Spanish. And the Spanish people are my favorites in the world.
2 years ago • 1 note
