Cerveceria

August 31, 2010

            On my arrival day in Barcelona, my friend Jessie and I had not the slightest clue as where to go or eat around this big, foreign city. From the hotel we first stayed at, we were pointed in the direction of La Rambla and decided to go check out this street and area that we have heard so much about, yet we were not able to grasp it’s full concept until one sees it themselves. We got off the metro at Catalunya and started wondering to find some good, authentic Spanish or Catalan food. We were immediately greeted with the huge and bright “Burger Kind” and “McDonalds” signs, but were definitely not going to stop there! We started walking down La Rambla towards the beach, until we were stopped by a sweet old man ushering us into his restaurant called Cerveceria. This particular place is one of the first you see walking down the street on the right hand side. It almost looks like a little cave, as it is white from the outside and all wooden and aged on the inside, with the restaurant’s name in yellow, gothic- type print on the outside. He took us up to the tapas bar to choose which items we wanted to order. His English was limited, as is our Spanish, so we kind of played the guess and check game for a bit. We saw some things that looked very appetizing, such as fried shrimp, meatballs, patatas bravas and chicken. Not sure how the process of this really worked, he told us to point to some things that looked good and he would prepare our order. Within a few minutes little plate after little plate of tapas was being brought out to us, and all of it was so delicious. The old man was so sweet and sat down at the table with us trying to make conversation and constantly giving us kisses on the cheek. He finalized our meal by bringing out a complementary, double chocolate cake which was so good but almost too sweet! He was such a kind man and had such a big heart, and gave us his phone number incase we ever ran into trouble and needed his help in Barcelona. So far, I haven’t needed to use it but I’ve kept it this whole time and want to make another visit there before I leave.