This article was initially published in the October issue of Global Drinks Intel magazine. For details on how to subscribe, click here.
The capital of Catalonia is making a name for itself as home to a thriving contemporary cocktail scene, writes Millie Milliken.
In 1933, Barcelona’s first cocktail bar, Boadas, opened its doors. Nearly a century later, it’s still going strong, albeit under a new owner. With an established on-premise and new award-winning bars bolstering the city’s cocktail scene, it’s clear that this historic and creative European hub is riding a wave of bartender-driven success.
The scene
Not many capital cities can lay claim to a beach a mere 4.2km from their centre, but Barcelona does. It sits proudly on Spain’s northeastern coast, not far from France, and is home to 1.6m people. It’s also home to some of the world’s most revered bars and restaurants across its four most famous neighbourhoods: La Barceloneta, Barri Gòtic, El Raval and Sant Per.
The capital of the Catalonia region, Barcelona is a tourist mecca, so it’s no surprise the on-premise was severely impacted by the pandemic. In 2019, the city hosted more than 20m tourists, according to statistical body Observatori del Turisme a Barcelona. This plummeted to 2.1m tourists in 2020, before recovering a little as restrictions eased, rising to 3.3m last year.
In spring 2021, the Barcelona Restaurant Association reported nearly 30% of its member restaurants and bars had closed for good. The closures included a number of beloved stalwarts — including two of the city’s oldest restaurants, Can Soteras, which had been in business for 107 years, and 97-year-old Agut, as well as Albert Adrià’s renowned elBarri group of high-end venues. However, this may not be all bad news. Some in the industry believe the changes wrought by the pandemic offer an opportunity for a reset — the drop in visitors also cleared out many of the old tourist traps, leaving openings for new establishments to move in.
With COVID curbs lifted, visitors flocked back to Catalonia this summer. In July, the region welcomed just under 2.5m tourists, over 1.5 times more than in the same month a year earlier and a 1.4% increase on July 2019, according to Spain’s National Statistics Institute.
Catalonia was the second-most popular destination in Spain this year behind the Balearic Islands, while within the region, around half of all visitors travelled to Barcelona. From January to July, the city welcomed 5.4m tourists, 900,000 more than the same period a year earlier. One million people, the equivalent of 60% of its population, visited in July alone — more than in 2021, but still 12.7% below the record-high figure seen in 2019. Most (82%) of visitors were from abroad.
Gastronomy is the most popular reason why international tourists visit Barcelona, according to Statista, and with food comes drinks. In Barcelona, bars are popular meeting spots and locals eat and drink out on a more regular basis than perhaps in other cities (their bars stay open later too). Barcelona’s bar scene punches well above its weight. Modern cocktail bars bump up against globally recognised venues, modest vermuterias (vermouth bars) and al fresco bars plying Copa glasses filled to the brim with the ubiquitous Gin & Tonic.
Key trends
While Spain might be best known for its wine and beer, the growth and notoriety of its cocktail bar scene have been hard to miss in recent years. Well-known bars such as Boadas (famed for its bartenders’ practice of the ‘throwing’ cocktail technique and recently bought by industry veteran Simone Caporale) and 1978 stalwart Dry Martini (known for, you guessed it, its martinis) still attract tourists and locals alike, but more recent newcomers are keeping Barcelona on some of the bar industry’s biggest lists.
In 2016, Paradiso (a cavernous bar hidden behind a fridge door) opened and has since sat in the top three of the ‘best bars in the world’ lists. Meanwhile, El Raval has all been but taken over by the Two Schmucks crew who, after opening their eponymous ‘five-star dive bar’ back in 2017, have since launched the more food-focused Fat Schmuck and late-night karaoke joint Lucky Schmuck and featured on Tales of the Cocktails ‘Spirited Awards’ nominees list this year. Early 2021 saw Caporale and Marc Alvarez open Sips, and news is just in of a new venture on the horizon too.
Traditional spirits categories that have previously done well in Barcelona such as gin — a strong player in Spain, in general — look to be plateauing, according to IWSR Drinks Market Analysis. Instead, vermouth has been gaining in popularity over the last few years and continues its drive in bars and restaurants — perhaps due to its aperitif-style serve and lower ABV.
International players
The international influence on Barcelona’s drinking culture and offering is becoming more apparent. Non-nationals make up 17.6% of the city’s population, while foreign-born nationals are at 20.7% — the largest minority group, Italians, make up 14.2%.
The city hosted one of the most anticipated bar openings across Europe this year — and it comes from two Brits. Bristolians Tom Godfrey and Theo Quinn, whose bartending experience in Barcelona include stints at Two Schmucks and Paradiso, are showcasing their take on Spanish hospitality at FOCO (which stands for ‘Foreign Correspondents’).
Meanwhile, London-based hospitality group Ennismore opened its first Spanish The Hoxton in the El Poblenou neighbourhood in April. Described as the group’s ‘most ambitious’ hotel, the venue serves up classic cocktails on its rooftop tacqueria, Tope, along with beer and natural wine at its ground-floor pizza restaurant-cum-bodega, Four Corners.
Local players
Beer will always be a shining beacon for Spain. While brands such as Mahou, Estrella Garcia and San Miguel are recognised internationally, Barcelona has established a dynamic and widespread craft-brewing industry for the last 30 years. New breweries such as La Textil, which produces 120,000 litres a year and has 18 rotating craft beer taps, regularly add to the burgeoning scene.
Cava, of course, remains the country’s sparkling wine of choice (70% of Cava production occurs in Catalonia). In January, new regulations came into effect that emphasise winemaking regions and introduced premium tiers of aged wines. Javier Pagés, president of the Regulatory Council of the Cava Protected Designation of Origin, believes the rules will help place cava DO “at the forefront of quality sparkling wine designations of origin”. (Pagés is also the president of Barcelona Wine Week, which expects 18,000 visitors and 470 international buyers through its doors in February.)
In terms of other drinks categories, homegrown vermouth brands, such as El Bandarra, are flourishing locally (and internationally). Launched in 2014, the brand plays into the city’s growing vermouth scene and sees brothers Alex and Albert Virgili source grapes from their Casa Berger vineyard near Barcelona in Alt Penedès.
Challenges and opportunities
While not unique to Barcelona, there are also some important changes being mooted in terms of alcohol tax that could throw bars and brands operating in this vibrant, lively city some curveballs.
Spain has one of Europe’s lowest duties on alcohol — the collects just EUR2.69 [US$2.85] in tax per 70cl bottle of liquor. By contrast, Germany collects EUE3.65, France EUR5.05 and Italy EUR2.90. This may soon change, however: The EU wants to increase alcohol duty as the minimum rates have been in place since 1992 and “have not kept pace with inflation, the evolution of the market, consumption patterns or growing public health concerns”.
Collecting less duty than other EU nations has been a shrewd decision — the low cost of drinks has proven a huge tourist draw, with the on-premise thriving as a result. But, if Spain increases the duty it charges to similar rates as its neighbours, it could collect up to EUR1bn more in tax a year.
How will this impact Barcelona’s on-premise? After all, visitors to the city already shell out more in tourist tax than they do elsewhere in Catalonia — a tourist booking an Airbnb in the city, for example, pays EUR2.25 plus an extra city tax of EUR1.75, compared to EUR1 anywhere else in the region — so additional price hikes may lead to a drop in visitor numbers and have a trickle-down effect.
Like many other cities, Barcelona’s on-premise is facing a staffing crisis, despite high unemployment rates. As well as immigrants leaving the city due to the pandemic, this could have something to do with the low average monthly salary and the lack of permanent contracts offered to employees in the industry.
Barcelona’s bar scene may have some short-term challenges to overcome, then, but the opportunities are already there for the taking.
This article was initially published in the October issue of Global Drinks Intel magazine. For details on how to subscribe, click here.
