Close the fish restaurant of the Mercat de la Llibertat: "I'm going back to La Pubilla"
The cook Alexis Peñalver advances that the chef Carles Ramon, who had worked at Besta, is who has taken over the Hermós's transfer
BarcelonaIt's Wednesday at noon, and at the counter of the Hermós fish bar, located inside the Mercat de la Llibertat, in the Gràcia neighborhood, two couples are sitting, discussing whether to choose razor clams, mussels, or cockles. At the six-number stall (which means six meters) occupied by the Hermós bar, chef Alexis Peñalver and waiter Alejandro are experiencing farewell days. They explain to regular customers that this Saturday will be the last day of Hermós, the fish and seafood restaurant in the Mercat de la Llibertat, and that they have had four years full of joy and also “losses, particularly linked to the restaurant's opening hours, which can only be from 12 p.m. to 4 p.m.”. They also inform everyone that there will be a new restaurant, which will be called Seny, and that it will be run by chef Carles Ramon, who will cook new fish and seafood dishes using different techniques and will do it very well. And what will happen to all the dishes that Alexis had made during these four years at Hermós? They won't disappear: “I'm going back to La Pubilla restaurant, which is about to celebrate sixteen years, and there we will continue making them,” he says.
The Hermós adventure began when Alexis, after the pandemic, accepted the proposal made by the stallholders of the Mercat de la Llibertat: to take over the restaurant that had been called El Tast del Joan Noi, which was closed. The establishment had (and has) a municipal license to cook fish and seafood there, and it is located next to the Joan Noi fish stall, still active today. “The market told me that with the bar closed, there was a lack of life, and since we have La Pubilla opposite, we accepted it right away,” recalls the chef. So the Hermós fish bar, as Alexis named it, became a high counter with stools, where you could eat from Tuesday to Saturday from 12 p.m. to 4 p.m.
Seafood stews for dipping bread
The good reputation of La Pubilla, where the chef comes from, specializing in Catalan cuisine, and especially the stews that Alexis began to prepare, made l'Hermós quickly become a benchmark. In these four years, there are two dishes that those who have sat at its stools will especially remember: the sardines stuffed with picada with a stew of hanging tomatoes (which cost 13 euros) and the seafood stews, such as all cremat or monkfish with balandra sauce. “The balandra sauce is from the region of Tarragona, from the romesco family, and I finish it with a fish stock and red pepper,” says Peñalver. In fact, seafood cuisine was the repertoire on which the chef has based his work these four years, and he chose a very significant name to christen the restaurant: l’Hermós, one of the friends of the writer Josep Pla. According to the author from Empordà, l’Hermós was one of the few people who had a free life. “L’Hermós was called Sebastià Puig and, according to Pla, with a few things he had a meal ready, because he fished and hunted, he was self-sufficient,” says Peñalver.
The bar Hermós will close forever this Saturday, at 4 p.m., and soon the bar Seny, by chef Carles Ramon, who had worked at the restaurant Besta in Barcelona, will take its place. “Whoever comes to eat will be able to choose a fish and then ask for the technique they want to eat it with, that is, grilled, baked or more,” points out Alexis Peñalver, who states that he is happy that his successor is “a chef who will bring life to the Mercat de la Llibertat, which is one of those with the best fish in Barcelona”.
At the Mercat de la Llibertat in Gràcia, recommended to visit and always to buy from for the stalls of legumes, fruits, vegetables, fish, and meat, another bar is in operation, Bar La Clau.