Boadas Cocktails , or simply Boadas, as most people shorten its name, is an institution among Barcelona bars. It is hard to believe that Boadas was even smaller than its current (tiny) incarnation when it first opened its doors in 1933, but what this bar lacks in space it more than makes up in atmosphere and history. Boadas takes its name from Miquel Boadas (1895–1967), its first owner, who had learned his chops as a teenager in Cuba at the Floridita bar, a hub of Catalan immigrants from Lloret de Mar such as Narcís Sala Parera, the bar’s founder, and Constantí Ribalaigua. See Boadas, Miguel; Floridita; and Ribalaigua y Vert, Constante.
Unlike them, Miquel Boadas moved back to Spain, where he brought a flair for the Cuban technique of throwing or tossing a drink, which still can be seen in use today at many of the city’s other bars, and a knack for attracting visiting artists, writers, and musicians, such as Josephine Baker and Joan Miró. See tossing.
After a short stint behind the stick at the trendy spots of the era, such as Maison Dorée, Canaletes, and Nuria in Las Ramblas, Miquel opened Boadas in 1933. The press at the time describes the place as “quaint and elegant,” and indeed it wouldn’t be much more than a long corridor with a bar attached to it until after the end of Spain’s civil war, when it would gain a few precious meters and become the triangle it is now.
Miquel Boadas was also an organizer, and he was the first president of el Club del barman, a Spanish bartending association that is now affiliated to IBA. At his death, his daughter Maria Dolors (1935–2017), a fine, skilled bartender in her own right, took over the bar. Maria Dolors held firmly the helm of Boadas until shortly before her death, always keeping her father’s eye for detail and warm hospitality. Her legacy continues in the work of today’s owner and manager Jerónimo Vaquero (who started as an apprentice in 1970) and that of his team. Like Miquel Boadas, they throw their drinks, shun jiggers, and will make one feel in a different universe from Barcelona’s most crowded street, just steps away: Boadas is the complete opposite of a tourist trap.
“Boadas cocktail.” Boadas Cocktails website. http://boadascocktails.com/en/history/ (accessed March, 10, 2017).
Boadas, María Dolors. Los cóctels del Boadas Cocktail Bar. Barcelona: Muchnik, 1990.
“Gacetillas.” La vanguardia, August 23, 1933.
By: Mar Calpena