Bars & Clubs

Is It a Bar, Cafe, Pub, or Club? -- In Barcelona, it's not unusual for places to have several personalities. During the day, that peaceful cafe is the perfect place to sit and read a book or enjoy a fresh croissant. Then, as night falls, the staff changes, the music is turned up, and suddenly you might look up from your book and find yourself in a cool bar surrounded by a loud group of trendy young things. If you wait longer, you might find yourself moved from your table as the furniture is stored away so that the DJ can turn it up and people can dance.

Gay & Lesbian Clubs -- The city has a vibrant, active gay nightlife, with bars and clubs to suit all tastes. The best thing to do is walk around the area known locally as "Gayxample" -- a part of the lower Eixample area, more or less between Carrer Sepulveda and Carrer Aragon, and Carrer Casanova and Plaça Urquinaona. By no means every bar there is gay, but many are -- and all of the trendy-looking ones almost certainly will be. Most bars welcome people of any persuasion -- but hetero couples should be prepared to be discreet.

Champagne Bars -- The Catalans call their own version of sparkling wine cava and it comes from the nearby Penedès region. In Catalan, champagne bars are called xampanyerias. With more than 50 Catalan companies producing cava, and each bottling up to a dozen grades of wine, the best way to learn about Catalan "champagne" is to sample the products at a xampanyeria.

Champagne bars usually open at 7pm and stay open until midnight or later. They serve a small range of tapas, from caviar to smoked fish to frozen chocolate truffles. The traditional local time to go is late morning on a Sunday, when entire families will have a pre-lunch sip. Most establishments sell only a limited array of house cavas by the glass, and more esoteric varieties by the bottle. You'll be offered a choice of brut (slightly sweeter), brut nature, or rosat (rosé or pink champagne).

Finding Munchies! -- After a long night out, the one thing you need is food -- and the greasier the better. If you're out of the city's center, you might come across a traveling churros stand selling fresh potato chips, long strips of greasy fried donut dough, and sometimes cups of hot chocolate to dip them in to. Some tapas bars are open late or very early, such as El Reloj (Vía Laietana 47). If it's any early morning but Sunday, the markets usually have bars open too -- the local favorite is Bar Pinotxo in the Boquería Market on La Rambla. Also open very early is the real local secret: the croissant factory hidden on the small Carrer Lancaster on the Raval side of La Rambla near the corner of Nou de la Rambla. It opens about 5am and, for 2.50€ ($3.15), you can buy a box of greasy, chocolate cream-filled doughy croissants that you'll be hard-pressed to finish.

Old-Time Dancing -- Plenty of nightclubs claim to be "classics" but none can beat La Paloma, Tigre 27 (tel. 93-301-68-97; Metro: Universitat) -- more than 103 years young and still going strong. The name means "the pigeon" and it opened as a ballroom in 1903, with its famous murals and chandelier added in 1919. It's a part of Barcelona's history -- Pablo Picasso met one of his long-term girlfriends here, and Dalí used to sit in a box by the long balcony and sketch the people who came in. During the religiously strict time of Franco, someone called "El Moral" was employed to make sure that couples didn't get too close to each other. But there's none of that now. During the early evening, it opens as before for lovers of the fox-trot, tango, bolero, and so forth, accompanied by live orchestras. But from Thursday to Sunday, the place undergoes a transformation and becomes a hip and happening nightclub from 2:30 to 5am. From its incredible decor to the mimes that stand outside trying to keep people quiet, this place is a true original. Admission is 8€ ($10) -- more on special nights.

Piaf, Drag Queens & a Walk on the Wild Side -- Do you long to check out the seedy part of Barcelona that writers such as Jean Genet brought so vividly to life in their books? Much of it is gone forever, but la Vida nostalgically lives on in pockets like the Bar Pastis, Carrer Santa Mónica 4 (tel. 93-318-79-80; Metro: Drassanes).

Valencianos Carme Pericás and Quime Ballester opened this tiny bar just off the southern end of Les Ramblas in 1947. They made it a shrine to Edith Piaf, and her songs still play on an old phonograph in back of the bar. The decor consists mostly of paintings by Ballester, who had a dark, rather morbid vision of the world. The house special, naturally, is the French aniseed-flavored drink pastis (to be drunk straight or with a mixer) and you can order four kinds of pastis in this dimly lit so-called "corner of Montmartre" -- the district of Paris that contains the famous Sacre Coeur church.

Outside the window, check out the view -- often a parade of transvestite prostitutes. The bar crowd is likely to include almost anyone, especially people who used to be called bohemians. The bar also features live music of the French, tango, and folk variety, squeezed into one corner.

Dancing with the Green Fairy -- If you're feeling adventurous, there's good reason to go to Bar Marsella, Sant Pau 65 (no phone; Metro: Liceu), and that's its specialty: absinthe (absenta). Picasso and Dalí are reputed to have been regulars here and it looks as though they haven't dusted the bottles since. The bar's been here more than 150 years serving the homemade drink that gives it its fame. Absinthe is an impossibly strong aniseed-tasting drink made, in part, with the herb wormwood. Some countries still ban it for its alleged hallucinogenic qualities, which led to it being called "the green fairy." Here they serve it the traditional way: with a fork, a small bottle of water, and a sugar cube. You place the sugar on the fork prongs and balance it over the rim of your glass. Then slowly drip a little of the water (not too much!) over the sugar so that it slowly dissolves into the drink. Wait for it to sink in, and then keep adding drips of water so that the sugar has nearly all dripped into your glass. Then mix the last of the sugar into your glass with the fork, and then drink. One glass won't do you much harm, but you can see those around the bar who've had at least a few by their glassy expressions and loose jaws.

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