Reopens the Mervier Canal pastry shop: 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 that in two months we could save the Christmas turrons, and in the end it has been a full six months that the works have lasted us," explains Lluís Estrada, son of Mercè Canal (78 years old), who together with his brother Xavier (81 years old) owns the pastry shop. The display window is full of all kinds of Sant Joan cakes: filled with cream, truffle, fruit, or cracklings. They have lost the Christmas and Easter campaigns, but they are arriving in time for Sant Joan.

Inside, everything is new. On the right, the refrigerated display cases containing 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, the pastries. You'll find the famous, award-winning croissants. Also the substantial Neapolitans; 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 expressly from El Born to buy them because they are unique; I haven't managed to get them made at 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 El Born, on Carrer Princesa, corner with Montcada. "There I am 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 Brunells), have alternated in recent years for the best croissant award organized by the Gremi de Pastisseria. In the last edition, the one in 2025, Toni Vera, for La Canal, won the competition; in the 2024 competition, Andreu Sayó, from 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 return to the Parisian flan, because we left it undescribed. It is a puff pastry dough, prepared in the shape of a round container, inside which there is flan. It is a traditional French pastry preparation, which at La Canal they have been preparing for a long time with two flavors: flan and raspberry. Whoever has tasted it once can be sure that they will return.

While we taste the Parisian flan, Mercè Canal explains to me how her brother and she 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-making 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 that's how they looked for a place in Barcelona so they could run it together. "Prices were sky-high in the 70s, with very high transfer fees," and they decided on Calvet street. In the same establishment, there had previously been a pastry shop, belonging to the Gelpí family from Calella de Palafrugell, which had been operating 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 that 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 on the day you ask me," for example. That's how people thought they were married. "And when they saw me walking with my husband, Lluís's father, then I saw them looking at me badly; this especially happened to me on the Costa Brava, where many of our clients vacation; it's normal because they always saw me with my brother in the pastry shop and they didn't know we were family," comments Mercè.

Regarding the fire, mother and son explain that it is all in the past now, like a scare. "Luckily, there was a neighbor, who had had a dinner with friends that ended late in the morning, who noticed it, because he immediately called 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 Calvet's 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 now. 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 each person's taste. "It's one of the novelties we've incorporated, along with infusions, because we thought that with croissants or pastries in general, coffees could also be sold," says Lluís. To finish, the final curiosity about the name Mervier Canal: the brothers chose the name Canal because it was a family surname, while Mervier is the mixture of Mercè and Xavier, which they had to add because there is another pastry shop called Canal in Barcelona, which is not theirs. The last detail: due to 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 launch of a brand new workshop.