Santi Amigó Castellví: "I'm not one to cry; I think we need to take action and not blame the government for what's happening to us."

Saint Paul of OrdalI interviewed the head of the room, Santi Amigó Castellví (Sant Pau d'Ordal, 1962), on the last day of service in 2025, December 29. The Cal Xim restaurant It will be closed for vacation until January 7th, when it will reopen as usual. His brother, Fidel, will be grilling; Santi will be in the dining room. This very month of January 2026 marks the restaurant's fifty-second anniversary, and Santi tells me they have plenty of life left in them. Their parents started the restaurant Xim is needed The family was founded by her grandfather, nicknamed Ximet, who had married her grandmother, Cinta. "They were both widowed during the Civil War and came together; Ximet owned this place, where we are now, and her grandmother, Cinta, got married," says Santi. As we talk, in one of the restaurant's three rooms, diners head towards her to say goodbye. No one leaves without saying farewell. That's what happens when you've become a benchmark for good food and drink in the heart of the Penedès region. Meanwhile, at the back of the room, her brother, Fidel Amigó, has started clearing the embers. In the kitchen, her sister-in-law, head chef Tona Travé, is also putting the finishing touches on today's meal.

Cal Xim restaurant was opened by her parents.

— Yes, right on that wall where we are, I have a photo of them both. There were boots, they made grilled sandwiches. Little by little they started making more. Now some beans; now roasted peppers. People asked them for dishes, and they kept adding them.

When will you and Fidel, the two brothers, decide to take the reins?

— When I finished my military service, it was 1984, and my father told us that if we wanted to start working, we had to do something because otherwise there wouldn't be enough salaries for everyone. He told us we had to turn it into a restaurant, open all week. And that's what we did.

How did you end up staying in the living room, and your brother standing in front of the coals?

— It was easy, because my brother said that if he had to serve cards, he wouldn't do it. But I, on the other hand, loved it. I'm sociable, I like talking to people, and even as a child I remember my mother, when we lived at the restaurant, coming down in her bathrobe to tell me to come upstairs right away. I liked watching people, seeing how they played cards, seven and a half, and Remiro.

I'd like to point out that the wine list features only wines from the Penedès region. There are restaurants in Catalonia that still haven't realized they have excellent wines produced close to home.

— Well, I only have wines from the Penedès region, and what I have from elsewhere is very limited. I might have one or two Priorat wines, but I rotate them; I don't repeat them. I also work with different distributors: Vila Viniteca, Inzolia, Cal Feru, and Cuvée 3000. At the Inzolia shop in Vilafranca del Penedès, they told me they've noticed an increase in sales of a wine I recommended at the restaurant. For Cal Xim, the ratio of importance between wine and food is 40% (wine) and 60% (food).

In Cal Xim people go to eat and drink well, and also to talk to you.

— I think that when you go to a restaurant, they should make you feel good, because we already do that at home when we go out to eat just for the sake of eating. People enrich my life a lot; I'm curious, I like meeting different people, and I like listening to them because I think everyone has a point. All of this is wisdom. And I get it without leaving San Pablo de Ordal. Iconic restaurants are also known for their dining room. I'm thinking of the Via Veneto, in itHispania, in el BulliBulli had a charismatic figure like Juli Soler, who was capable of staying and talking with customers until the early hours of the morning. Sommelier Ferran Centelles wrote: that's when he learned the most.

Just now that you mention Ferran Centelles, a great figure in the wine world, I'd like to ask when you decided to focus on wine. Cal Xim is renowned for its wine list.

— First, I had the urge. I went to wine tastings with the winemaker Enric Soler in Sant Martí Sarroca, and with Toni Falgueras at Bodega de Gelida in Barcelona. The turning point, above all, was the day I bought six Riedel glasses. I only bought six, and I used them when someone ordered a wine that I felt was too strong. Then something extraordinary began to happen: when I put two out at a table, the people at the next table noticed and asked for the same glasses. Soon I had twelve. And from twelve glasses, I went on to have the entire set, including water. We were the second restaurant in Catalonia at that time to have a complete Riedel set. The first was El Bulli. So, the day I put a good glass, a Riedel, on a table, I had to buy more glasses and more wines, all from the Penedès region.

He was a visionary.

— You can say that, but it came to me from observing people's reactions when they saw a glass on the table. I've already told you that I've been a very good observer since I was little.

Did you think, if people were asking you for that glass, then they were also asking for a more expensive wine?

— I understand what you mean, but if the people at the next table are drinking a €45 wine, you'll want one that costs more than you could have afforded. Maybe you won't order a €45 wine, but you'll definitely want one that's more expensive than you were planning to spend. That's what people were subconsciously doing. And I don't think they did it out of envy, but because they wanted to experience what they saw at the next table. It was a ripple effect, which works really well in the restaurant business, that led me to want to offer the entire wine service, from start to finish. And I want to take it a step further.

Can you tell me about it?

— I want to focus on serving wines by the glass. I hadn't felt the need to until now because people always asked for bottles, but now I realize that's not the case. There are many reasons why people want to drink less: driving, health, changing habits. Generally, people are eating and drinking less and eating healthier. If they order a charcuterie board as a first course, they'll order fish as a second. So I want to try serving wines by the glass, with a bottle-opening system that allows it, and I'd also like to work on serving good liqueurs in shots, small glasses. Being able to try a really good liqueur, which usually has high prices, in a tiny glass, allowing you to truly savor it.

For someone who has never eaten at Cal Xim, what dishes would be good for them to try?

— Xató, to start. Also peas, broad beans, and chopped meat. And grilled suckling pigs, pork cheeks and trotters, and duck breast. We cook duck very well.

For dessert, carquiñoles and cataneas from the Penedès region. And in summer, peaches from Sant Pau de Ordal, which appear frequently in main dishes.

— We really like buying local ingredients. The vegetables are also from the Ordal area. The carquinyolis are from Sant Quintí de Mediona. The catanias are from the Via brand. The Ordal peach is a benchmark, and I think the market, especially in the summer, took off so well because we're a town with only three restaurants, and of those three, we're the newest. If they had done it in Lavern, I'm sure it wouldn't have been as successful as it was in Sant Pau de Ordal.

Speaking of restaurants in Sant Pau de Ordal, don't you find that people confuse you with Can Pau Xic, right next door, or Cal Pau Xich, in Guardiola de Font-rubí?

— People often confuse us because of the pronunciation of our names, which can make them think of one as the other, but we are very different. We have a set menu for 33 euros and also an à la carte menu.

In Barcelona, ​​chefs often talk to me about you.

— I've been based in Barcelona for many years. I've worked hard to promote the restaurant. Then, here, people ask me how it is that so many famous people come here, from basketball and other places, and it's because I've been out there a lot. I haven't stopped, and I've even been told that there wasn't a single restaurant in the Penedès region that was as active as I am. I've been to Luz de Gas for countless gin and tonics. You can't wait for people to come to you; you have to go out. I have a group of friends with whom I've been going to restaurants for years. I know theAlbert Raurich, in Xavier Pellicer, heAlfred Romagosa and in Josep Maria MasóI'm not one to complain; I'm one to believe we need to take action, that we can't blame the government for what's happening to us. To those who complain, I say: get to work, get moving.

Finally, Santi, I'd like to ask your opinion on the idea of regulating the price of wine bottles in restaurants. You currently decide the price you sell it for, but there's a debate about whether it should be different.

— Everyone should set their own rules. I don't want to sell a wine I consider very good for a low price. If I'm subjected to rules like this, then we should implement rules regarding payroll, because there are women who are paid less than men for doing the same work.