Bar Castells

What does Bar Castells have? Everything and nothing. It’s a bar filled with customers from all walks of life, with waiters in white shirts that serve you with a mixture of professionalism and familiarity that’s typical of the hotel trade in Barcelona (with either humour or a bad attitude –always carefully in check- that depends on the day). It has a short interior with crowded tables surrounded by walls of exposed brick, a menu of classic tapas (patatas bravas, cured meat platters and cheeses, sandwiches, croquettes, anchovies), a marble bar, wooden door and hanging meats.

The prices are reasonable, and the clientele is varied (it’s centrally located and many people pass by it, from the neighbourhood, tourists, youth) and it’s always full but you’ll quickly find a place to sit. What does Bar Castells have?  It’s a lifelong bar, and there aren’t many left and in the centre you can count how many on one hand.

It has a fantastic terrace on Plaza del Bonsuccés. It’s a great place to sit and people watch while grabbing a bite to eat that won’t cost an arm and a leg. Part of the bar is open to the exterior, where oftentimes you can find smokers who are half inside half outside. There is a beautiful, slightly elevated wooden buffet filled with bottles behind the tapas display. It’s easy to see that this bar has been around for a century, and this makes it a classic bar, from people who have everything and those who have nothing in particular: they all come together here in Bar Castells.