Tapas on Carrer de Blai
Bar-hopping along 500 metres of tapas heaven - Renowned as Barcelona's ‘Tapas Street’, Carrer de Blai serves up bar upon bar offering every conceivable variety of Spain’s iconic delicacy.
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About Carrer de Blai permalink
Carrer de Blai (carrer is ‘street’ in Catalan) is found in the Poble Sec neighbourhood, and runs diagonally just to the south of a main road, Avinguda del Paral·lel. Served by the Metro stations Poble Sec (L3) and Paral·lel (L2 & L3), and various bus stops, Carrer de Blai is fairly central and easily accessed.
Carrer de Blai is approximately 500 metres of sheer tapas. Happily for the dining experience, the street is pedestrianised and filled with terraces and outdoor seating. By the late evening – especially on Thursdays, Fridays and Saturdays – the night will be well under way, so you may struggle to find a seat or even a space at the bar in some of the more popular haunts, unless you arrive a little earlier.
Those who live in the Poble Sec neighbourhood will note that in more recent years, the nearby Carrer de Blesa is like a continuation of C/Blai and plays host to more of the same (tapas and pintxos bars) as well as relaxed eating and drinking in the street.
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Some restaurants will open for lunch around midday, but the best time to experience Barcelona’s “Tapas Street” is in the evening. From as early on as late April/May, where the temperature is still high at night, try to arrive no later than 8 pm to ensure a table, especially at the weekends.
While many other tapas bars in Barcelona will set you back in excess of €2 per dish, on Carrer de Blai €1.50-2 is the norm, so prepare to shop around and try the many different varieties on offer. It is not always necessary to order: pintxos are skewered with a little wooden stick, so in many places you can just help yourself and settle the bill later by counting the sticks!
Barcelona is well known for its fish and seafood, so keep your eye out for the Catalan words peix (fish) or marisc (seafood) – pescado and marisco in Spanish. That said, there’s a wide variety to cater for all diets and tastes, with meat, cheese and vegetarian options in abundance – and even dessert tapas for a sweet finish. Take a beer or wine to wash it all down. On busier nights, when it’s warm late into the evening, Carrer de Blai will be buzzing as the drinks keep flowing and music pumps out from the more popular bars on the strip. We recommend staying out late ;o)
A little background permalink
The Poble Sec neighbourhood – thought to be so named after local factories dried up the wells in the area (in Catalan, sec meaning ‘dry’ and poble ‘town’) – is a scenic spot at the foot of the Montjuïc mountain that has seen a sharp rise in tourism in recent decades. This has meant more tourists flocking to Carrer de Blai, but the street itself is still lesser-known to most visitors and remains a solid hit with locals. For a fully immersive Barcelona tapas experience, Carrer de Blai should be high on your list.
Held as an originally Andalucian dish, tapas nevertheless has a complicated and much disputed history, and comes in a wide variety of styles and variants. Carrer de Blai is famous for its pintxos, which is a Basque term since this type of tapas originates from the Basque Country, not Catalonia. The Carrer de Blai is said to capture the traditional bar-hopping tapas culture of San Sebastián. A pintxo – or pincho – is a ‘spike’, as pintxos are delicious morsels skewered through a little slice of bread (a montadito) with a wooden stick.
What’s nearby? permalink
Poble Sec lies just to the north of the Montjuïc neighbourhood, so we recommend taking a trip to Carrer de Blai after a day of sightseeing at the Fundació Joan Miró, Castell de Montjuïc, Greek outdoor theatre (Teatre Grec) or in the many gardens, parks and viewing-points nearby on Montjuïc. It is also possible to walk from Las Ramblas and Drassanes in around 15-20 minutes.
by Darryl •