So a, very last minute trip to Barcelona happened. All a bit random and Cooper was treated to a night with a friend. He loves sleep-overs especially when fussed with extra special attention and looked after like a king!
After making some plans on keeping Coopers fun and lively, the hunt for morning coffee was on. I had one hour and no idea – For me, Instagram is a great way to get a quick sense of where to go and what it’s like with quick location search on it too. So after a bit of time, trying to find something in a walkable distance I found 4 places but only had time for two max, so found a couple that looked delicious and near each other.
Roast Club Café and Cargo Café.
ROAST CLUB CAFE:
I felt I wanted to spend more time at the Roast Club as it seemed my kind of small, independent place with a great story and glad I did. I turned up and the guy who owns it was there who is a lovely, friendly guy. (annoying I didn’t catch his name and can’t find it after a fair amount of research, though I am sure I have seen it somewhere). As you can see from the pictures it is very natural and rustic. He made a lot of the furniture with a little help and built nearly all the fittings, making it very warm and inviting.
He was very friendly and welcoming. I turned up early, so we had a really good chat even though his day was not going to plan, as I know so well! After initially using some great coffee from various places, including but not limited to, the Barn, Nømad Coffee he now has a local roaster. They work together in order to regularly change and have fresh single origin coffees. Boy it is great teamwork.. the coffee was superb, It was fresh with a beautiful crema, as you can see from the pic of the espresso, the shot pulled beautifully. Weighed out and timed, along with the care and passion to judge the extraction. There was a great cocoa, hazelnut black tea base with well balanced acidity and a sweet dried-fruit raisin and maple syrup finish. Definitely good enough to have a second even though I knew I would be stopping at another place! Oh the things I do in the name of research.
I also had a delicious speck, tomato, rocket ciabatta roll. Super fresh and lightly toasted as my breakfast. Just right to get my morning going. I would love to have stayed, I also wish it was just around the corner here in the UK. It would 100% be a go-to place if I lived anywhere near. He has only been open a few months so I am hoping that locals get on board the this relatively new coffee culture scene for Barcelona and help this place work out. It’s a gem of a find and, should you be heading to Barcelona, worth getting out of the main tourist area and visiting. It’s small but perfectly formed!
Massively recommend it, as much if not more than anywhere I’ve been. Should I ever be in Barcelona again I will go back.
https://www.facebook.com/roastclubcafe/
https://www.instagram.com/roastclubcafe/
Location: carrer valencia 143, 08011 Barcelona
Next was a super quick stop in CARGO CAFE:
This was a much more polished place. It was a tad busier which is a shame for Roast Club being so near, but it is a slightly larger space so maybe more practical for people and possibly better geared up for people to work in.
It was very inviting and the chap there was an absolute gem. For me personally it was not quite as exciting as Roast Club. Maybe if I were to spend more time I would have warmed to it even more. If I could have started chatting to the guy it could have been interesting too, he definitely knew what he was doing and was very efficient, shame I had to run.
I got a takeaway Cortado. It was also extremely good and tasted delicious. It was very smooth with dark chocolate and light caramel flavour setting off the red fruits and silky milk. A tad hot for drinking straight away but this is how so many people want it served I understand why it was done, and it was not to the point of scalding the milk which is ideal. Clearly he/they understand how to treat coffee and milk to make an ideal cup.
I would love to have had time to relax there and try some of the food, it looks delicious. Maybe if I make it back to Barcelona one day then I will pop there again. It also looks like it would be brilliant of an evening. There seems to be a good range of spirits so it’s a multi-functional place.
Would I recommend? For sure. If you ever make it let me know what you think, especially if you make it for an evening as well.
https://www.facebook.com/cargo.barcelona/
https://www.instagram.com/cargobarcelona/
Location: Carrer de Muntaner 73, 08011 Barcelona
So I was told the coffee scene in Barcelona is not great, but judging by this it is starting to happen. These are two quite new cafes and recent additions to Barcelona so hopefully a good sign of things to come and strength of the specialty coffee scene globally.
Happy days!
James & Cooper