Let's start with a comparison. The feeling of a diner stepping onto the red floral carpet of the Via Veneto restaurant in Barcelona (c. Ganduxer, 10) must be similar to what a football player feels when entering a historic stadium. Respect. And it is not because of the bellhop who took our coat and opened the door for us, Carlos Fernández. It is not because of the carpet, always spotless. It is not because of the greeting we will receive from the manager, Pere Monje, who will lead us to our table. Nor because of Xavier Regàs's modernist decoration, with that elliptical glass that allows one to observe who is in the dining room from the lobby. Nor because of the elegant white curtains with ruffles in the room. It is not just because of all that. It is because we find ourselves in a unique place, where fifty people work who seek to serve hours of happiness with the finest tableware, those that are not measured by a clock. Seated at one of the tables, with the waiters and maîtres dressed in tuxedos, we will forget the coordinates of space and time. You enter Via Veneto thinking about your daily chores, and you leave grateful to life for the hours spent. In between, there is a family of owners and a team that we have interviewed so they can explain the inner workings of a restaurant that will turn sixty years old next year.

He little cry, as the raor fish is popularly known (Xyrichtys novacula), has gone from being an unknown fish to arousing passion in season, which is right now in Catalonia, and also in August. "When we started working with it, more than fifteen years ago, no one knew it and we had to explain what it was like," recalls Pere Monje, director of the Via Veneto restaurant in Barcelona, who features it on the menu these days. "They come to us directly from the Maresme region, and the supplier, who fishes for them with a line, tells us daily how many he has," Monje continues. The day we interviewed Pere Monje and the chef David Andrés There was half a kilo. And what a half kilo! At the market, a kilo of parrots It can cost around sixty or more euros.

I interview Pere Monje one morning, hours before the first diners arrive at the restaurant. In the kitchen, suppliers are bringing in ingredients, and the cooks are busy preparing the various batches. Chef David Andrés is in his office, next to the kitchen, reviewing the recipes they'll be adding starting in April. The Via Veneto restaurant was opened by cultural promoter Oriol Regàs on April 9, 1967., two months after the Bocaccio nightclub had opened. This year, then, the restaurant on Ganduxer Street turns fifty-eight and, furthermore, celebrates having held a Michelin star for 50 years without interruption. For the Monje family, it is a reward for consistency in the profession, for their effort to ensure that every lunchtime and evening meal becomes the best possible experience for the diners who sit at the tables with salmon-colored tablecloths and napkins. Pedro is the restaurant's manager, but also maître and serves as a sommelier. He plays an active role in the dining room, often preparing steak tartare and, in particular, crepes Suzette.