The Indo-Catalan tavern in the Sants neighborhood of two old acquaintances

BarcelonaVery close to Plaça Osca there is a charming tavern. Casual. With a nice patio in the back, very cozy. Like "a Balinese space without Buddhas," they describe it. And with an offer that you will not find anywhere else. Catalan cuisine with an Indonesian finish. I ended up there without knowing anything about it, other than that it was called Bitxo. And once I had the menu in my hands I said "hey, we are in an interesting place." It didn't take me long to figure out where the talent came from. And then I understood everything.

It is the restaurant of Jordi Bernús and Jordi Devesa. We already had the two Jordis on our radar. Bernús, because he was the chef and owner of Sants Es Crema, a unique restaurant that it was a pity closed. Barcelona will hardly ever have such excellent sandwiches again. Devesa has La Clote, the establishment in the Clot neighborhood with succulent pizzas as its banner. The connecting link was the Sants neighborhood, where Devesa had also owned the restaurant Vilardell. Both were in the DO Sants association. It was in this axis of restaurateurs that they became friends. And from this friendship, Bar Bitxo was born.

When Bernús closed his restaurant, Devesa hired him to improve the starters at La Clote. He provided consulting on the subject and trained the staff. “We tried making a Javanese fricandó, with coconut milk and vegetable curry. Or a Japanese capipota with edamame and beer teriyaki,” dishes that can still be tasted at La Clote. There was a rapport between them. “We like what we do; we are very radical. If we have to spend many hours there, we spend many hours there.” They decided to open a traditional Catalan cuisine restaurant with a different touch. “We can put a spin on Catalan gastronomy, right? We don’t always have to do the same thing. We can try new flavors. Without losing the essence, we can put lime in the fricandó,” asserts Devesa. And that is how they stumbled upon the Indonesian influence, since Jordi Bernús had lived there and his wife is from there. This is how this Indo-Catalan tavern materialized.

But let no one be confused; they do not want to be described as a fusion cuisine place. It is a term they avoid. “It’s not pad thai with tripe. It’s traditional Catalan cuisine with different ingredients,” says Devesa. Let’s give examples, so it will be better understood. They have the Bomba de la Barceloneta, but instead of potato, they use spicy rice, nasi goreng, which is the national dish par excellence of Indonesia. The capipota lumpia and the Russian salad with anchovy lumpia are brutal. How interesting the texture and contrast of temperatures. The lumpia would be the spring roll they eat there. More dishes: grilled chicken satay, meatballs with squid in gulai sauce, which is a typical Indonesian curry, and a bikini, which is having a lot of success, made of fermented tempeh with peanut sauce. Highly recommended. The average bill is more than reasonable, about 25 euros per head.

One of four

To announce the opening of the restaurant, they only needed to post a photo together; the rest came on its own because they are two beloved and respected people. “We are a Catalan tavern,” says Devesa, and he explains that for this reason the menu is in Catalan, and that they, if necessary, will translate whatever is needed. And they believe that with our traditional cuisine as a base, you can go wherever you want. For this reason, they plan to open more restaurants with this idea: Catalan cuisine with a twist towards the gastronomy of another country. For now, we can say that they will all be in Sants, the neighborhood that brought them together. There will be four of them and they will be under the “Crit de la terra” umbrella. In each one of them, there will be recipes that you will not find anywhere else.