Lena and Ricky, the second restaurant to close at the Time Out Market, located in Barcelona's Maremagnum
The chefs have decided to focus their efforts on the first restaurant they opened in the city, the Balón
Barcelona"We have closed because we want to focus all our efforts on our other restaurant, the first one we opened in Barcelona and which has given us recognition, the Balón," explain Lena Maria Grané and Ricky Smith, the young entrepreneurs who confess that they believed in the Time Out Market project from the beginning because they thought it was "a quality gastronomic offer." That is why they took a chance, "but with the current number of visitors, especially from Barcelona, it is very difficult for us to manage a business of this nature," they continue to explain.
The two chefs, who met in London and chose the name Balón (c. de Dios y Mata, 141) as a union of the two initial syllables of Barcelona and London, underline the effort and work that has gone into the restaurant located in the Maremagnum of Barcelona.
A second case
It so happens that, one day after the Lena y Ricky restaurant closed, so did Sentido Común, run by chef Jordi Artal. As explained by At Ara Mengem, Artal explains that he has been there for eight months, and that the experience has been taken "as a test for both parties" involved. Chef Jordi Artal, with the two-Michelin-star restaurant on Entença Street (called Cinc Sentits), recalls the names of the European cities where Time Out Market is a success, such as Lisbon and Porto. With the closure of Sentido Común, Jordi Artal confesses that he is currently looking for a location in the city to once again offer his market cuisine.
Time Out Market, which could be defined as the agglomeration of the best restaurants of a city in a single space, began as an idea in 2014 in Lisbon, specifically in the Da Ribeira market. With the good reception in the capital of Portugal, the publishing house opened more in Boston, New York, Chicago, Montreal, Dubai, Cape Town and, most recently, in July 2024, in Barcelona, in a space of more than five thousand square meters and which has so far hosted fourteen kitchens, a full-service restaurant and four.