This Eixample landmark faces a second life with a cautious modernization under the ownership of Somos Esencia.
It closed last September, but there are places that have a popular profile too dear to let them die. The historic Bar Bauma (Roger de Llúria, 124) has just reopened its iconic marquee at Roger de Llúria and Diagonal. The owner of the bar-restaurant, Joan Altarriba, has transferred it to the restaurant group We Are Essenceowners of Bestial, Barraca and Agua. According to Altarriba, the transfer has been made "on the condition that the bar continues in the hands of someone who has the same values as us".
The values of Bar Bauma are none other than those of everyday life and daily use. Opened just after the Second World War, it was one of the first modern public places in the Eixample (and according to what I heard Altarriba say, it was the first bar in the city to have a television facing the customer). During the nineties and early 2000s, it became a writers' hangout: you could find Quim Monzó, Joan de Sagarra or Marsé, but what really mattered was the calm that the bar transmitted, in a strategic location, and being able to enjoy a good breakfast or a decent and plentiful menu of the day.
Bauma means "rocky shelter in a shallow natural cave into which light penetrates". And the dark entrance crevice, below the iconic sign and between stony walls, still promises just that. According to the management of We Are EssenceThe modernization of the premises has been surgical. "The renovation of the interior design has been very prudent, we left the bar intact and also the detail of the ceramic caravel above the coffee pot," they explain. The intensive opening hours remain unchanged: every day from 9 a.m. to 11 p.m., "to cater to a customer profile that ranges from the elderly to grandchildren, and where everyone tells you their story with the bar when they come back in," they say with satisfaction.
They have also maintained the breakfast offer that was the trademark of the house: sandwiches of tortilla flauta, Iberian ham and fuet, or the classic tuna with mayonnaise and roasted bell pepper speak of a way of having breakfast one hundred percent Barcelonian. For lunch, hot spoon dishes (fricandó, meatballs with cuttlefish, oxtail...) and a repertoire of classic tapas. And also the inevitable concessions to the tourist who queues at La Casa de les Punxes: tatakis, avocado toast and eggs benedict, but all at prices that do not gentrify.
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