La Xarxa Restaurant: local cuisine in Plaza Molina

The love of gastronomy and appreciation for our homegrown produce are passed down through generations. Jose Varela knows this better than anyone, and he likes to say he was born in the restaurant his parents opened in 1969 at the intersection of Via Augusta and Brusi: La Xarxa. In fact, his story is very close to reality because the family lived in the same building as this seafood restaurant, a landmark in the city, which Jose transformed over time. There, he grew personally and professionally, learning to love the trade and developing a passion that has led him to own up to five restaurants in Barcelona managed within the Varela group. La Red, as it was before, had to close a few years ago, until it opened in 2017 under the same name but with a different concept in the middle of Plaça Molina. "This restaurant is the darling of the group; it's special. It's the one that sells the most produce and where we want to offer the most convenience to our customers," explains Jose.

He and Carlos Aullé, head chef and right-hand man at the business, are in charge of selecting the produce and creating the restaurant's menu. "The culinary supervision is entirely ours. We don't offer anything we wouldn't eat ourselves, and there's a constant tasting and testing process," he emphasizes. They strive to offer the best ingredients on the market, ensuring that the customer's bill doesn't go up. Reading the menu makes you salivate because the list of dishes is certainly enticing. We decided to start the meal by sharing some confit chicken and parmesan croquettes and added a jowl bun with kimchi mayonnaise for each of us, and the same proportion of the famous "saucepan." wad of shrimp with pico de gallo and chili mayonnaise: "The wad is the best-seller from the restaurant, there are people who come expressly to eat them. We sell more tacos "What a lot of beer," he explains, laughing. We also tried the ugly cod omelette, made to order on bread with tomato, which is prepared at the table in front of the customer. We looked at the list of suggestions to finish off the starters and added the fried eggs with red and blue tuna tartar, the macaroni stuffed with cheeks in their juices, and thesteak tartare Cut with a knife. From the tempting wine list, today we chose a bottle of Gratallops 2022 (DO Priorat), one of the gems from Álvaro Palacios' winery. While we were at it, we took the opportunity to close the festival with a "work-free" rice dish with fish and seafood before serving dessert: Santa Teresa toast with vanilla ice cream and homemade flan with cream, which we split between the three of us.

Guaranteed future

We left feeling satiated and very happy to have tasted honest cuisine with top-quality products. Jose and I reminisce about their beginnings in the culinary world. He tells us that he started working at 16 and dreamed of one day owning a Michelin-starred restaurant until, while working at Akelarre, he realized the pressure it entailed and changed his mind. He's proud of what he's achieved over the years and is especially happy that his 20-year-old daughter wants to follow in his footsteps. The future of the group and La Xarxa is assured. The love for the product will continue to spread across generations. This will be the third time the Varela family has started, and this is great news for the city and for our country's gastronomy.