The Mervier Canal pastry shop reopens: the nougats and Easter cakes have been lost, but they arrive just in time for Saint John's Day

BarcelonaThe Mervier Canal pastry shop on Calvet street in Barcelona, the first one, has reopened its doors after the fire last December. "We thought we could save the Christmas nougats in two months, and in the end, the renovations have lasted us a full six months," explains Lluís Estrada, son of Mercè Canal (78 years old), who along with his brother Xavier (81 years old) owns the pastry shop. The display case is full of all kinds of Sant Joan cakes: filled with cream, with truffle, with fruit, with cracklings. They have lost the Christmas and Easter campaigns, but they are doing well for Sant Joan.

Inside, everything is new. On the right, refrigerated display cases holding Sacher cakes (filled with apricot, house specialty), Sara cakes, and cream puffs (generously sized). On the left, on shelves reaching the counter with the cash register, are the pastries. You'll find the famous, award-winning croissants. Also the substantial Neapolitan pastries, Swiss breads, large palm leaves (one with pink chocolate), and especially the Parisian cream puffs. The first person to come in on opening day to buy them was Salvador Sans, from Cafès el Magnífico. "I'm coming specifically from the Born to buy them because they are unique; I haven't managed to get them made at La Brunells," he says. He refers to the shared ownership that Lluís Estrada has with Salvador Sans and Joan Guasch of the Brunells pastry shop in the Born, on Carrer Princesa, corner of Montcada. "There I'm a partner with them, but here at La Canal, the owners are my mother and my uncle, Xavier; the pastry chefs are different, and that's why the pastry preparations are also different," comments Lluís. In fact, the two pastry chefs, Toni Vera (from La Canal) and Andreu Sayó (from La Brunells), have alternated in recent years for the best croissant award organized by the Gremi de Pastisseria. In the last edition, that of 2025, Toni Vera, for La Canalwon the competition; in the 2024 competition, Andreu Sayó, from La Brunells, won it. "This competitiveness works very well for us because, as friends, they strive to do better," says Lluís Estrada.

Puff pastry with a caramelized cream puff inside

We're back with the Paris flan, because we left it undescribed. It's a puff pastry dough, prepared in the shape of a round container, inside which there is flan. It's a traditional French pastry preparation, which at La Canal they've been making for a long time with two flavors: flan and raspberry. Whoever has tasted it once can be sure they'll return.

While tasting the Paris flan, Mercè Canal explains to me how it was that she and her brother opened a pastry shop on Calvet street in 1970, that is, fifty-six years ago. "We were 23 and 21 years old, we lived in Puig-reig, and my brother wanted to leave to learn a trade." Xavier left, learned the pastry chef's trade, and returned home a few years later to tell them he was opening a workshop. "Our parents said yes, but on the condition that his sister, that is me, had to work there; they didn't let me choose anything else." And so they looked for a place in Barcelona so they could both run it. "Prices were sky-high in the 70s, with very high transfer fees," and they decided on Calvet street. The same establishment had previously housed a pastry shop, belonging to the Gelpí family from Calella de Palafrugell, who had worked there for thirty-three years. Among the anecdotes experienced by the two siblings, Mercè and Xavier, there is a juicy one, which is that customers traditionally thought they were a couple. "When I started working there at twenty-one, I realized I couldn't refer to my brother with a family vocative, as we did at home, so I started calling him Mr. Canal." Mercè would say to customers: "I'll ask Mr. Canal if he can make this cake for you by the day you request," for example. And that's how people thought they were married. "And when they saw me walking with my husband, Lluís's father, then I saw that they looked at me badly; this especially happened to me on the Costa Brava, where many of our customers vacation; it's normal because they always saw me with my brother at the pastry shop and didn't know we were family," comments Mercè.

Regarding the fire, mother and son explain that it's all in the past now, like a scare. "Luckily, there was a neighbor, who had a dinner with friends that ended late into the night, who noticed it, because he immediately alerted the Firefighters." When the Canal Estrada family arrived first thing in the morning, everything was burnt. Nothing was saved. Not even the access door. "We had all the chocolate ready to prepare the nougats, the chocolates, for Christmas, because the Calvet workshop is what we dedicate to chocolate," explains Lluís, who adds that in the second workshop, located on Muntaner street, is where they make the pastries, including the famous croissants.

Everything is in the past. At Canal de Calvet, where everything is new, including the floor tiles, there is now a large coffee machine, recommended by Salvador Sans, to prepare coffees to everyone's taste. "It's one of the new things we've incorporated, along with infusions, because we thought that with croissants or pastries in general, we could also sell coffees," says Lluís. To finish, the final curiosity about the name Mervier Canal: the Canal name was chosen by the siblings because it was a family surname, while Mervier is a mix of Mercè and Xavier, which they had to add because in Barcelona there is another Canal pastry shop, which is not theirs. The last detail: because of the pandemic, they wanted to celebrate their 50th anniversary working at the pastry shop. They haven't celebrated it, and now, having reached fifty-six years, they are celebrating the opening of a brand new workshop.