Antiguo café y billares, Barcelona

When Josep Xifré i Cases, a Catalan businessman who had made his fortune in Cuba, built the Casa Xifré opposite Barcelona's Chamber of Commerce in the mid-1830s, he stipulated the ground floor of this residential block should accomodate a prestigious cafe. The Café de las 7 Puertas (or Café de les Set Portes in Catalan) opened in 1836. It is said there was no sign yet on inauguration day and a journalist, who was reporting on the event, simply counted the number of doors through which customers could enter. An eighth door was reserved for staff and goods.
It was the third owner of the Café, Bertomeu Grau, who introduced in 1914 billiards and card tables. In 1929, the year of the Barcelona International Exhibition, the name was changed from Café to Restaurante de las 7 Puertas by the new owners, Sr. and Sra. Morera.

Antiguo Café y Billares

Antiguo Café y ...

As the signs painted on the pillar refer to the former (antiguo) cafe and billiards, one can assume they date from around 1929, when the cafe became a restaurant.

Under the Moreras the Restaurante de las 7 Puertas became the haunt of politicians, journalists, artists and other famous people, attracted by its famous arroz parellada. However by the late 1930s the restaurant was in decline. Needless to say the Civil War and its heavy toll on the Catalan capital played a major part. In 1942, a group of aficionados convinced Paco Parellada, the owner of a famous restaurant in the small Catalan town of Granollers, to take control of the Restaurante de las 7 Puertas. Since then it has been one of Barcelona's most popular restaurants, well worth a visit for its signature dish, the paella parellada.

To find out more about The Restaurante de las 7 Puertas and its history, you can visit its very good website.

Location: Passeig Isabel II / Pictures taken in October 2011

J. Torrens, Barcelona

In June 1910, the magazine Nuevo Mundo published an advert for Barcelona's high-end shops, disguised as the results of "the Barcelona commercial competition." To the question "which luxury shoemaker offers the most comfortable bespoke shoes?", the answer was J. Torrens. This is the earliest mention of Torrens I found but we can assume his shop on the Rambla de las Flores had already been opened for a little while.
Over the following two decades, several printed adverts appeared in Catalonia's best selling newspaper La Vanguardia. Some invoices from the same period are also on sale on the internet. The last time the name appeared was in 1936, on the eve of the Spanish Civil War. Did this dramatic event have an impact of J. Torrens's business, or did it simply closed after its owner retired?

As luxury bespoke items, Torrens's shoes were not cheap. In January 1936, Jaume Armengou, from Manresa in central Catalonia, purchased several pairs for himself, his wife and his children. Prices for adults were between 70 and 80 pesetas, and 24 pesetas for kids. Eighty pesetas was equivalent in 2001, before Spain's national currency was replaced by the euro, to 17,650 pesetas. Converted into euros, the price would have been just under 110 euros. This may seem pretty reasonable for bespoke shoes but it is worth remembering that in 1936 in Spain the average daily wage in the industrial and service sectors was 11.79 pesetas for a skilled worker and 8.36 for an unskilled one. In the agricultural sector, daily wages on average only reached 7.03 pesetas. Additionally, by 1936, 60% of a household's income was spent on food and 14.6% on housing, while 9.4% went towards shoes and clothing. In short, Torrens's shoes were well beyond the means of the immense majority of the population!

J. Torrens Calzado de Lujo

[J. Torrens Luxury Shoes]

J. Torrens
Despacho
Rambla de las Flores 6.

Even though Torrens's shop was on the Rambla de las Flores (also known as the Rambla de Sant Josep), the stretch of the famous Barcelona street between the Carrer del Carme and the Carrer de l'Hospital, these ghost signs can be seen in a narrow street of the Barri Gòtic. His workshop was certainly located in this building, and looking at an aerial view of the city, it probably communicated with the shop.

Location: Carrer del Cardenal Casañas / Pictures taken in November 2011

Posada Nueva del Progreso, Barcelona

In the late 19th or early 20th century, travellers looking for a bit of modernity in the narrow streets of the Barri Gòtic, the medieval heart of Barcelona, could have stopped at the Posada Nueva del Progreso (Progress' New Inn) for some food.


Nowadays all that remains is this rather unusual ghost sign - not because of its design, but because of what is written and how it is spellt.

Posada
Nueva del Progreso
Se sirve
a
cubiertos
y a
racciones
Indeed the expression "servir a cubiertos y a raciones" is not very common. Actually it does not even appear on any document available on the net, including old books and articles. What was meant there, I believe, was that one could have either a proper lunch or dinner with food served at a table (thus available with "cubiertos" ie cutlery) or just something over the counter ("a raciones"), which could be eaten there or taken away.
As for the spelling of "ración, -es" with a double 'c' it is very odd to say the least and is certainly a mistake by the sign writer.

Location: Carrer del Cardenal Casañas / Pictures taken in November 2011

Bodega cervecería, Barcelona

This painted sign crowned by the cheerful face of a cook promises customers tasty tapas, good serrano (dry-cured) ham, and, obviously, since we are in Barcelona, pan con tomate. This simple dish is a classic and easy to prepare Catalan tapa. First toast some slices of rustic bread. Then rub some garlic cloves and after that some tomatoes cut in half until the tomato juice softens the bread a little. Finally sprinkle some olive oil and a bit of salt. That's it, the pan con tomate, or more appropriately the pa amb tomaquet (in Catalan), is ready to be eaten! As this place is both a bodega and a cervecería, the tapas can be washed down with either wine or beer. Now I'm hungry!

Bodega cervecería
Calidad en tapas
Pan con tomate
Buen jamón serrano
Location: Carrer de la maquinista, Barcelona / Picture taken in October 2011