Kim Díaz: "The other day Robert De Niro congratulated me on the 20th anniversary of Mut, and I started the day crying."

BarcelonaI interviewed Kim Díaz on a Friday at his cocktail bar, Muticlub (Córcega, 318), which has a sign on the door stating that only people over 40 are allowed inside. This is the first sign of Kim's sense of humor, as he celebrates the twentieth anniversary of the bar that has given him worldwide fame, Bar Mut (c. Pau Claris, 192), which is located directly across from the bar. We took the photos at Bar Mut, and ARA photographer Pere Virgili photographed him in iconic corners of the bar. Every table was snapped up, like the one by the piano, which is perhaps "the table where the most loving couples have sat," he says. The menu offers many attractions, but I choose two: the rice dishes and the suquet de muelle. And, of course, reservations are essential.

The success of Bar Mut lies in the magical atmosphere of the establishment, which casts a spell on everyone who enters, as if they were entering a film set or a small theater where many things happen. Perhaps this is one of the keys to understanding why Bar Mut is so attractive. Others, it's a combination of circumstances, such as the actor Robert De Niro visiting one day by chance and deciding to have lunch and dinner there for ten days straight.

How did you open Bar Mut if you had never worked in the hospitality industry?

— I wanted to change my professional life. I was working in cinema, making movies, spending many hours away from home, and when my eldest son was born in 2001, I thought I'd change my pace. Then I saw the Bar Mut space that was up for rent, and I went for it.

With the opening of Bar Mut, were you able to improve your movie schedule?

— No, Mut ran us all over. We opened it twenty years ago, on June 30, 2005 (306 is my magic number), and from that first day until nineteen months later, we were packed every day. I opened it as a vermouth bar, so with hours that were supposed to be shorter than those of a restaurant, but I found that people didn't want to leave. They made the vermouth, and they stayed.

Because Bar Mut makes people feel good. It has a special atmosphere. Perhaps because of the blackboards, the bar, the piano table. Or because of the tabla players playing on Pau Claris Street.

— I create all the venues myself. Here, where we are, at the Muticlub cocktail bar; next door, Bocadillos Díaz, too. The Solera winery, which sells natural wines with 1,300 selections and dishes, is across the street, too. Since I come from the film world, I imagine each place. Now I've opened Paloma, a Mexican restaurant, with chef Paloma Ortiz. I also have Trattoria Enriquetto (c. Herzegovina, 24), and I'm working on a new project in the Born neighborhood. I have partners in both Trattorias, Paloma, and Solera.

I'm back with Mut. Setting isn't everything.

— I'd tell you that every bar and restaurant should combine three factors: space, service, and product. These are the three things that attract customers for the first time, and then keep them coming back. Do you know what's the most beautiful thing about these twenty years of Mut? I've seen people come back again and again, I've seen them evolve; Mut is a theater of dreams. And part of those dreams comes from the lottery I won.

I focus on the menu. I've seen seafood, fish, rice dishes, and steak.

— We work with many local producers. Mut's rice dishes are famous because I think they have an original formula: they start with a neutral base, fish, on which you can choose what you put. So you can choose several options, which vary in price: from Vilanova prawns to Sant Pere rooster.

We've talked about food, now I ask you about service, which is the third pillar you told me about for a restaurant to work.

— I'm very pleased with the service. I like to highlight the group of young people we have working here, a total of twenty of them.

Dinner is available at Mut at 7:15 p.m.

— We have two shifts, 7:15 p.m. and 9:15 p.m., and we're considering a third shift, dinner, starting at 6:00 p.m. I also maintain that if we started lunch at 12:00 p.m., we'd still work well. These are the schedules people ask for, and we're adapting to them.

There are always tourists, especially Americans.

— We appeared in a report by diary New York Times, and they tell each other about it. We also have a great host, actor Robert De Niro, who's been a great help to us. Have you seen the video he just made to congratulate us on the establishment's 20th anniversary?

How did Robert De Niro eat Mut?

— It was a Friday afternoon in 2012, and the actor had had a stolen photo taken at a restaurant, which had upset him. So, that afternoon, he asked his driver to take him to a quiet place. It turned out the driver knew him, and he took him here, to Mut. I was in the dining room, serving people, and he liked the way we treated him. And look, my whole body was shaking while I was talking to him. The next day, and for ten days in a row, he came to lunch and dinner. From then on, we became friends; I've been to his house in New York, and we were on the vermouth bar together in New York.

Didn't you open it?

— No, because my personal circumstances changed, I separated, and we let the project go. We've had other adventures together, like vacationing in the Caribbean, Marrakech, Sierra Nevada, and Marbella. Robert De Niro loves food, he really likes wine from Spain and Catalonia, and he loves the Priorats because they're full-bodied wines. The other day, when he sent me the video congratulating us on our twentieth anniversary, it was morning, and I started the day crying. He's eighty-one years old, and he has a three-year-old baby, I think.

For some time now, it has been said that Bar Mut was very expensive.

— I suffered greatly when that idea spread. The people of Barcelona labeled us with that, and I wondered what we were doing wrong. Since we opened, the average bill has been between 60 and 70 euros, but we have fresh produce; people who go to the market know the prices of fish and seafood. It's very difficult to lower prices when the raw materials, even if they're good, are very expensive. Because of all this talk about Bar Mut, I joined the Hospitality Industry Association.

What do you think of the new regulations approved by the City Council regarding the use of heaters and the ban on smoking on terraces?

— Regarding tobacco, I have nothing to say. I think it's fine, but I don't think the same about the heaters. Removing them from the terraces would be the decapitation of the restaurants. At least, that's the case at Mut, where we have 20 chairs on the terrace and 30 inside. For small spaces like Mut, the terrace is important for revenue. When we can't use the heaters, revenue will drop, and therefore all the other consequences will follow, such as not being able to pay as many staff salaries as we do now.

Is vermouth still a staple at Bar Mut?

— When we started, we had up to fifteen different ones; now we only have one, which is a special Martini collection. We've changed, and now we do lunches and dinners. As benchmarks for vermouth bars, we have two big monsters in Barcelona, ​​and in Spain: Quimet & Quimet and the ChampagneI've never seen places like these two. The people who run them are very good, some of the biggest names in the hospitality industry.

Finally, Kim, do you have relief?

— My eldest son, Nil, who is 24, is already working as a manager at one of the restaurants, Trattoria Enriqueto. And he loves it.