The unbeatable market bar that has been feeding a whole neighborhood for more than 40 years

BarcelonaJoan is 82 years old. This means that seventy years ago, when he was twelve, he started working. First in a hardware store in his neighborhood, La Barceloneta. Later, to earn a little more money, he started washing glasses on Sundays at the bar next door, Casa Pascual. The owner saw he was sharp and told him to work there full-time. He went from earning 75 pesetas a week to earning 150. Imagine what a raise and how happy they were at home! He kept working hard until one day he realized he needed to have one day off a week: Sunday. They already had two daughters with Soledad Martínez, and a third one was on the way. That is how Bar Joan was born, to be able to have 24 hours of rest.

Joan Hernández's life has been about working. Even now he tells me that he is still at it. “I haven't officially retired, I am an active retiree. I pay little in self-employment taxes and it's worth it.” “I do little things to keep myself entertained. Like invoices,” he says. But he also acts as a guarantor of the essence to ensure they don't lose their momentum. He cannot imagine life without the bar. He has lunch there every day and this summer, when they were on vacation, it felt long to him. The bar is to him as if it were “his fourth child.” Together with Cristina, Olga, and Laura.

We are at the Santa Caterina Market, and Bar Joan is quite an institution for Ciutat Vella. He created it in 1984, but it wasn't until March 1985 that the bar was officially inaugurated. I realize that the bar and I are from the same year and the same month. And I think about the number of plates of legumes, tripe, or rabbit that Joan must have served throughout my life, which suddenly seems very insignificant to me. While we chat, Julio passes by, a customer who has been there since the first day. Since before the market renovation. Julio tells me that the Hernández Martínez family are good people, and that the whole family rolls up their sleeves and works in unison. While he says this, Cristina works the stove, Laura hurriedly serves some customers at the long bar. There is also Joan's granddaughter, Lucía, Olga's daughter. And his nephew, Joan Carles, who eats breakfast in a rush just before getting back to work. They show me a photo from the year they opened: Joan Carles is already in it. A little younger, that's for sure.

A round menu and the sausage and pepper sandwich

On today's menu I find Cuban-style rice, sautéed Brussels sprouts, salt cod omelette, grilled sea bream, pickled mackerel... And potato and green beans, a dish that in Barcelona is found in very few places, like at Bar Gelida. At Bar Joan they have a menu from Monday to Friday. It costs 16 euros, and includes bread, a drink, and dessert. On Saturdays, when they raise the price of ingredients a little, then they do a la carte. 90% of what you eat here comes from the market itself. At lunchtimes there is a queue, but the wait is worth it. The bar, quite long, has a pile of stools, and then, they have the dining room for sitting down to eat. Or breakfast, since they start at 7:30 in the morning. Before they used to start at 6, Joan tells me, but habits have changed. The sandwich that sells the most is the sausage and pepper one. And when he says it, I immediately think that I will come to take a bite of it on a day not too far away.

Joan is not happy with the current Barcelona. He sees it as dirty and insecure. He thinks that before, even when there was more misery, we were better off. "There are brunch places that I still don't understand, and everyone serves hamburgers," he states. And that there are many people who "do not handle legumes well". "Chickpeas are not so easy to make. It cannot be done with the water that runs through Barcelona," he warns me. Another thing that has changed a lot is that now, besides the usual regulars, they serve many foreigners. They have the menu in several languages, a fact that costs them a lot of daily effort. They have a database with all the dishes translated. He tells me that you cannot fool those from abroad. Never that. You have to be honest. Although for a few months now the tourists who visit them have decreased. The construction work at the market to include the Parada Torres has put a wall in front of the bar, which is on a bright corner of the market. When they enter from the other side, the bar is no longer visible, it remains hidden. And in many cases they just stay there because they find a spot. "They did it without consulting anyone and we have to swallow it because the City Council does what it wants," he says. Regular customers, however, arrive anyway. I think they would arrive even if they had to run an obstacle course. Bar Joan, its good atmosphere, its healthy, homemade food at popular prices, is absolutely unbeatable.