Much more than just the Tickets
Amy Laughinghouse
Go Citybreak: Barcelona serves up innovative architecture, inspiring cuisine and beautiful beaches but most of all it’s a place to have fun with friends, writes AMY LAUGHINGHOUSE
GRIPPING A pair of long, lethal-looking tweezers, chef Tristan Lopez is hunched over a plate of pale anchovies, painstakingly applying tiny silver powder-coated potato paper “scales” to each slender sliver. Beside him, waiter Manel Vehi Mena dispenses “liquid olives” – just one at a time, presented on its own plate. He serves them with such reverence that I sense, even before tasting star chef Albert Adrià’s invention, that they aren’t snacks to be absent-mindedly gobbled, but miraculously soft, melt-in-the-mouth bursts of flavour that deserve to be savoured.
Watching the action at prep stations around the restaurant is all part of the “show” at Tickets. One of Barcelona’s newest tapas bars, it’s the brainchild of Adrià’s brother Ferran, head chef at Spain’s legendary El Bulli, judged to be the best restaurant in the world. With that three Michelin-starred establishment closing its doors this summer, tastemakers are turning their attention to Ferran Adrià’s latest venture, where reservations are (ahem) the hottest tickets in town.
A doorman in a black jacket illuminated with the restaurant’s blinking logo sets the stage. As punters line up on a crimson carpet beneath a box office style marquis, he ticks off each name on a list before slipping a red velvet rope free of its moorings and ushering them inside this culinary sanctum.
If it seems like an incredible amount of pomp and ceremony for what is, after all, just a meal, bear in mind that this is Barcelona, whose denizens revere food and style in equal – and perhaps excessive – measures. Tapas bars line the streets, and dinner can eat up three hours or more of your day.
Barcelona also proves a visual feast, of course, serving as a showcase for one of history’s most original architects, Antoni Gaudí. At Casa Batlló on Passeig de Gracia, pilgrims crane their necks toward its wavy roof, representing the dragon slain by Catalonia’s patron saint, St George. Gradually, their gaze cascades downwards over the broken-tiled mosaic facade, which is punctuated by bone-like columns and balconies reminiscent of empty eye-sockets – a homage to the dragon’s victims.
Tourist Info Dublin - News
Doubles from €215. Value: Mercat de La Boqueria, La Rambla 91, boqueria.info or tel 00-34-93-3182584. You'll find everything you need for a picnic lunch at this bustling market, which is a tourist attraction unto itself. Alternatively, belly up at one
78 min Sitting on a ferry, pretending to be a tourist but keeping an eye on the game on me phone. Michael Tierney 76 min Gjurovski tries to spread a ball down the right wing, but he totally overcooks it and the ball runs into touch. I'd have to say,
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Includes listings of accommodations, car hire, restaurants, pubs, and attractions.
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