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Bars and clubs
W
hatever you’re looking for from a night out, you’ll find it somewhere
in Barcelona – bohemian boozer, underground club, cocktail bar,
summer dance palace, techno temple, Irish pub or designer bar, you
name it. If all you want is a drink, then any café or bar can oblige.
Some of the finest cafés are already covered in the previous chapter, Cafés,
tapas and restaurants, and undoubtedly one of the city’s greatest pleasures is to
pull up a pavement seat and watch the world go by. However, the bar scene
proper operates at a different pace, and with a different set of rules. Specialist
bars
in Barcelona include
bodegas
(specializing in wine), “pubs” and
cerveserías
(beer),
xampanyerías
(champagne and
cava
) and
coctelerías
(cocktails). Best known
of the city’s nightlife haunts are its hip
designer bars
, while there’s a stylish
club scene
that goes from strength to strength fuelled by a potent mix of
resident and guest DJs. For the lowdown on
gay and lesbian
nightlife in
Barcelona, see Chapter 14.
The following list of bars and clubs provide a starting point for a decent night
out in Barcelona, but the scene changes rapidly so don’t be surprised to find
that some places have subsequently changed hands or names, or closed down.
In particular, there’s an ongoing assault by the Ajuntament (city hall) against
neighbourhood noise pollution, which has caused some high-profile casualties
over the last couple of years as establishments have closed after local complaints.
Local
listings magazines
(
Guía del Ocio
,
W
www.guiadelociobcn.es, and
Time
Out Barcelona
,
W
www.timeout.cat) cover current openings, hours and club
nights, and most bars, cafés, boutiques and music stores carry flyers and free
magazines containing news and reviews.
It’s worth noting that – unlike restaurants – most bars and clubs stay open
throughout August.
Bars
Generally, the bars in the old town are a mixture of traditional tourist haunts,
local drinking places or fashionista hangouts.
La Ribera
is still one of the
hottest destinations, with Passeig del Born the main focus, though a scene is
developing up in the neighbouring
barri
of
Sant Pere
too. In the
Barri Gòtic
,
it’s the streets around Plaça Reial and Plaça George Orwell that have their share
of the action. Over in
El Raval
, the most fashionable places are found in the
upper part of the neighbourhood near MACBA, though you can still find
tradition (and sleaze) further south, closer to the port, in the surviving bars of
the old Barri Xines. The
Port Olímpic
and the
Port Vell
Maremàgnum
complex are more mainstream summer-night playgrounds for locals and tourists
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BARS AND CLUBS
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Bars