The artists and spectators came on foot from the Liceu, and as soon as they crossed the door, they were already ordering snails. Thus was born the legend of Los Caracoles, the second oldest restaurant in Barcelona, always in the hands of the Bofarull family since the first glass of wine was served in 1835. A special place, since the first time you enter, you have no idea what awaits you inside. First, you find a bar that might make you think it's a small place, but it isn't. Then you go through the last charcoal stove in Barcelona, walking past the pots full of snails sizzling and sizzling, which fascinate foreigners. And then the rooms open up, to the right and left, upstairs and downstairs, in a journey where you can spend hours and hours just gazing at the hundreds of photographs that tell us about almost two centuries of Barcelona life. "We'll have to digitize and document them, the photos, because we have so many that over time it's hard to remember them all," admits Aurora Bofarull, the fifth generation to run the restaurant. A woman who knows by heart many of the stories of the most famous clients who have passed through. However, Aurora is moved by other details: "We have a couple whose husband is 101 years old. And they never miss their appointment with us. The nice thing is always the repeat customers. Sometimes an elderly foreign couple comes to us with a printed photo of themselves from 30 years ago. And I try to have them sit at the same table. It's important, the treatment," she says. And COVID-19 helped her see that she was right: treatment matters. "The pandemic left its mark on us. Before, we were open every day of the week and at all hours. You could come for lunch at four, five, or six. We always served you. And suddenly we had to close. But once we started doing takeout, customers could always open one," she recalls. "Before, we had 82 employees, and some of them had been with us for 40 years. We've always valued having employees who love their jobs."