Opening a new restaurant requires a minimum investment of €400,000 for a space of about one hundred square meters in Barcelona's Eixample district. This figure can quickly increase, depending on the luxury you want to put into the restaurant (type of wood, lighting, furniture in general) and also depending on whether the work on the space needs to start from scratch or not. However, having the money isn't the most important thing for a successful start, because there are many other obstacles, not always financial, that can make the opening take from three months to a year. Among the difficulties are bureaucracy, municipal permits that don't arrive quickly; the dining room and kitchen equipment, which in today's hospitality industry is one of the biggest headaches, and also getting manufacturers to commit to completion dates for the construction. But many more obstacles can be added, such as the possibility of soundproofing the restaurant, which may be an unforeseen event that hadn't been taken into account. Thus, opening a restaurant is an odyssey that has a distant Ithaca: ensuring the restaurant is full of diners.

I interview Carles Pérez de Rozas on a dull Wednesday at the Berbena restaurant (c. Minerva 6, Barcelona). He makes me a filter coffee and places the coffee pot on the solid, dark wood table. Today, the manufacturers confirmed to him when they will be bringing the marble for the new kitchen of the bar, which will open in April and is located twenty meters from where we are, on Sèneca Street. I was lucky because he had a quiet moment for the interview, because with the full daily services at Berbena, which start at 7 p.m., and the construction work on the new location, he is short on hours every day. I insist on knowing the name of the new restaurant, and he tells me he wants me to be surprised. He does tell me that it will be a wine bar with ten dishes, all different from those he cooks every night at Berbena. So, we can say that the cuisine of chef Carlos Pérez de Rozas, son of the great, deceased photojournalist—who dispelled the idea of becoming a war reporter—is in full swing. Carlos is a passionate cook who wears a cap that reads "Press" when he walks the streets with his dog Nora, in tribute to the reporters who have died since the outbreak of the October 7 war in Gaza. A note: the name Berbena refers to a plant in Catalan, and Carlos maintains this, but adds that the name is also a tribute. at his favorite Barcelona restaurant, El Gresca by chef Rafa Peña.