What can we do now that they are opening at night?

BarcelonaAs of this Sunday you can go out for dinner, and since you couldn't, all those, like me, who preferred breakfasts and lunches, we will do as those who are coming out of Lent, we will do as those who celebrate Ramadan, and we will go out. We will go out with the idea of "creating a memory". One day we will explain: "we called it a pandemic, there was a curfew and you couldn't go out at night. And suddenly, one day, they opened". Well, this is the day and it seems to me that, next year, around this time, we will commemorate it. We will go out at night, it will be a new festival in the calendar, like Sant Joan, which is perhaps one of my favourite festivals, because I associate it with four things I like a lot: colourful dresses, firecrackers, fire, cava. What can we do, then, now that they are going to open?

Go to a Star Restaurant for dinner. Most of them will be open in the evening. Finding a table might not be easy, because they are still, of course, at 30% capacity, and everyone has had this idea. Go to Hisop in Barcelona, for example, to eat a set menu. Hearing again: "A glass of cava, to start with? Any allergies, intolerances?" Or go to Disfrutar, or Dos Pebrots, or Alkimia, or Lluerna. To Casals, which, as they are in Sagàs, at the beginning of the pandemic, with the regional lockdown, they said: "We're closing, because if the people from the farmhouse next door don't come to eat...". To Ca l'Enric and Les Cols, because the Vall de Bianya is beautiful at night. To Òsmosi. To Ca l'Arpa, in Banyoles, and stay the night. I had been wanting to go to the Deliranto since before the pandemic. Someone I trust a lot had told me about this restaurant. The boss of Samba Brasil, the caipirinha bar on Lepant street in Barcelona. We'll go there later.

Dining by the sea, on a veranda. This would also be wonderful. In Vilanova, for example, there is the Marejol. The boss, Jose, is passionate about wine and if you let him, he'll always serve you covered bottles. He always has a wonderful product. In Vilanova, in fact, there are many excellent restaurants. Like the Peixerot, for example. Perhaps an idea is to go for dinner and, afterwards, do what our grandmothers used to do: "Go and get your feet wet".

Cocktail bars and cocktail lounges are open. Therefore, we can go for a cocktail in the evening. Now many of these cocktail bars - like Negroni - are open on Saturday mornings. Not bad, for me. But I'm looking forward to going, after dinner or before, to Boadas, Ideal, Dry Martini, Pastrami... Do you know it? It's on Carrer Rere Palau in Barcelona. It's a sandwich bar but it has a speakeasy. You enter through the fridge and you find yourself inside Paradiso. They serve all kinds of classic cocktails, but "modernised".

And if it's a question of combining, which I love, I can do this: go, for example, to the Phenomena cinema (they always have interesting shows) and, afterwards, have a caipirinha at the Samba Brasil. They are really good. The bar is the most normal thing in the world. And the boss is pure joy. From there you can also go to dinner at the Bardeni, which is a very small, very good restaurant that doesn't take reservations. Another combination, which I hope you can do: go to the Poliorama and have a sandwich at the Viena on the way out.

Speaking of sandwiches. Nothing is as nice as going to the cinema or the theatre and having a frankfurter on the way out. At the El Pibe frankfurter, for example, in Barcelona, with its diligent waiters shouting "March, OK!" Ah! And buying a sandwich at the Conesa, in Barcelona, and eating it while strolling along. In the Conesa, by the way, they have a menu for celiacs. 

And if all this doesn't convince you, or you can't afford it, you can do like a friend of mine. She told me she will do this: "I will go to the beach, alone like a rat, with a bottle of wine, a crystal glass and electric candles".