26 replies to this topic

[AlexForbes]

Last weekend, the last tapas were served at Barcelona’s Bar Inopia, co-owned by Albert Adrià – but he’s been too busy working on another project to mourn over the closing (the place will soon reopen under a new name, Lolita).

Albert is opening with brother Ferran Adrià a restaurant, also in Barcelona. According to Pau Arenós, one of Spain’s top restaurant critics, wrote in Friday’s El Periodico newspaper:

“Albert in October will cut the ribbon of the new business, in association with Ferran and the Iglesias brothers, Pedro, Borja and Juan Carlos, owners of Rías de Galicia. He says “It’s in the Paral-lel district and still does not have a name. It will measure 300 square meters and have four bars. One will serve fried foods, shellfish and ham. Another, montaditos. The third will be a parrilla and there’s also one for desserts, very important”".

Arenós, always one to coin new terms, says Albert plans to devote half a year of intensive work to the “hipertapería”.

Click here to read the full article, in Spanish.

[AlexForbes]

UPDATE!

After talking to Albert Adrià himself, and also Ferran, I found out the opening has been postponed until January 2011.

Their "avant-garde tapas" place will be in the Paral-lel area of Barcelona.

[ScottyBoy]

Damn! I was looking forward to this during my trip in December!

[Chris Amirault]

No other details about location? Surely they must have a space leased or bought in late Sept....

[AlexForbes]

Hi Chris, the location is Paral lel (near the subway station with that same name) but
I don't know the street name or anything.

Albert told a common friend that they'll first open a cocktail bar, as early as Oct or Nov,
and then the actual "tapas bar" in January 2011....

I was at El Bulli recently and spoke to Ferran about it and he told me he and Albert are at this very moment very busy brainstorming what they'll have on the menu, doing tests, etc. They will be more involved now, before the place opens, than afterwards, since they won't actually run the place themselves, only supervise.

[weinoo]

Okay, I'm up for the cocktail bar. Will be in Barcelona in November. Please keep us informed, Alex.

[Txacoli]

Thanks for the update. I hope they keep Chema on the chef team.....you won't find a more hardworking, positive guy in any kitchen anywhere.

[kathryn]

From the NYT:

BARCELONA, SPAIN

Ferran Adrià has not abandoned his cultish fans. Not long after he announced that he would close El Bulli, his wildly acclaimed restaurant, in 2012, he and his brother, Albert, signed on with the chefs who own the landmark Spanish seafood restaurant Rías de Galicia. This month, the team plans to open a contemporary tapas bar called Tickets, as well as a cocktail bar, in the Parallel neighborhood. Tickets will be far less formal than El Bulli, though its food and space will embrace a sense of the theatrical, with “stages” set up throughout the restaurant. At one, classic seafood tapas, like red shrimps from Costa Brava and razor shells from Galicia, will be showcased; at another, more-experimental small plates will star, like artichokes with smoked Idiazábal cheese serum.

http://travel.nytime...estaurants.html

[Rogelio]

Tickets will be open in February. But 41º (next door to tickets) opens today. This is the new snac-bar by Ferrán Adrià serving some of El Bulli's signature dishes. No reservations allowed so you'd better go early.

[Rogelio]

More info here

[kathryn]

41 Degrees opened on 1/24, Eater has a photo gallery of the bar, as well as photos of Tickets here:
http://eater.com/arc...elona-spain.php

[kathryn]

Web site is up and taking reservations:

http://www.ticketsbar.es/en/

[weinoo]

Web site is up and taking reservations:

http://www.ticketsbar.es/en/

Is there a flight tonight?

[tonto21]

Does anyone have any information on getting a reservation at 'Tickets', I am travelling to Barcelona in May and had a look there at the bookings and it appears to be booked out for the entire year as the only spot not taken was for person in June, that was the only available slot till December.

Is this the case or will the reservation be opened up for the later months in due course?

[rebecca]

Tickets will be open in February. But 41º (next door to tickets) opens today. This is the new snac-bar by Ferrán Adrià serving some of El Bulli's signature dishes. No reservations allowed so you'd better go early.

Has anyone done this yet? How early is early enough to actually get inside?

[spanielking]

I am going mid-may. Originally booked to go to 41 degrees, but noticed they would only be doing snacks. So booked Tickets through their website about a month ago. They had some spaces in the evening, quite early for Barcelona standards, so will see how busy it will be. Originally I read that 41 would be reservation-free, but now it seems you have to get a reservation even for there!! Dont know if you get access to 41 if you are booked in Tickets as you have to enter tickets to get to 41??

[AlexForbes]

Just got back from Barcelona and Spanielking the answer is YES - you need a reservation in both cases, so you can't go to Tickets and then just wanter into 41o. 41o has a street entrance but can also be accessed via Tickets but no matter: you need a booking all the same, as this is a bar where ppl are not allowed to stand, meaning only those w a booked seat are allowed in.

I tasted a few bites (amazing) and a few drinks (also amazing) at 41o, then, thanks to a friend who'd snagged a rezy, moved on to Tickets for dinner. More on that as soon as I edit the photos!

[Kent Wang]

Tickets looks all booked up for the next 90 days. I'm looking for a reservation somewhere in July 21-27. Has anyone had much luck trying to get reservations from cancellations? In other words, should I keep checking their reservation site, or not bother at all?

Edited by Kent Wang, 22 June 2011 - 01:21 AM.

[aidan]

Just got back from Barcelona. Made it to 41 degrees. We didn't have a reservation to either, and tickets seemed impossible to get into, even with cancellations. We walked right in to 41 degrees at about 7 on a Monday or Tuesday night, so that might be the best way to get a walk in. The food was great. Spherical olives, air bread with Iberico ham, kim chi octopus, curried rice worms and my favorite, nordic snow were all on the menu with many more things that I can't remember off the top of my head. We ordered almost every snack on the menu, and everything was very good. The parmesan ice cream sandwich was a little too much parmesan for me, but in a smaller portion would have been amazing. The cocktails were good, but nothing that I expected. Most or all of them were classic cocktails, with also a list geared towards gin and tonics. I enjoyed my cocktails, but wasn't blown away, and even went to drinking cava by the end of the night. If you want a cocktail experience, I was blown away by the two gentleman behind the bar at Ohla, in the Ohla hotel. It is a tiny bar with two amazing bartenders and great drinks. They made me an amazing angostura based drink that was as good as any drink I have ever had. Next time I go, I will try for reservations to tickets, but the new concept in store for 41 degrees seems pretty cool. 41 degrees

[AlexForbes]

You can always count on the brothers Ferran and Albert Adrià to pull a surprising new move without doing much explaining....

41 Grados, the funky and avant-garde "bar" which served up until recently the brothers’ Bulli-style “snacks” and iconoclast drinks, is no more.

After being open for only a few months, it has ceased to exist in its original form and has quietly “morphed” into a tiny urban El-Bulli-type restaurant, which opened a few days ago (Oct 18 to be exact).


This new 41 Grados is not similar to Tickets, the brothers’ contemporary “tapas bar” next door, but much more ambitious in its gastronomic explorations.

Diners – a mere 14 lucky few of them – will be served a succession of 41 courses. Albert Adrià has been feverishly working on the menu for several months and is visibly excited to be going back to creating whatever wild stuff comes to his mind. He’s even designed the tableware to match the new “dishes”.

Older brother Ferran being too busy touring the world as the face of giant Telefonica as well as attending to several other engagements, such as promotional events for his latest book, Albert is clearly the one running the 41 Grados show.


As was customary at El Bulli, reservations for 41 Grados are only taken online, by email (experience@41grados.es). There is, however, an additional hurdle: tables are only available for even numbers of diners (no solo critics allowed, therefore): either two or four.

I went there 2 nights ago and all I can say is..... BOOK NOW!

Amazing.

[Gav]

Anyone got any hints or tips for getting a booking here? I've been staying up til 12pm (Spanish time) waiting for the next days bookings to come online for weeks now - but they never seem to. Can get a booking at Tickets ok but it's 41Grados I'm really after at most any time or date.

[erha2]

Anyone got any hints or tips for getting a booking here? I've been staying up til 12pm (Spanish time) waiting for the next days bookings to come online for weeks now - but they never seem to. Can get a booking at Tickets ok but it's 41Grados I'm really after at most any time or date.

I'm going to Barcelona/San Sebastian in early April so I emailed 41 degrees at experience@41grados.es. They responded that booking for April will start in mid-March.

[Gav]

Ahhh great, thanks for that, looks like more late nights pressing refresh on the page then...!

[Txacoli]

I am trying to come to grips with folks' obsession with 41.

One of the main reasons the Adria's closed Bulli was that it stopped being fun. The fun fifty person cocktail/dinner party out in the wilds turned into a fist fight of corporate types and foodies struggling for tables to buff their own egos rather than enjoy the experience.

I just spent two weeks in Barca and Donostia (San Pau, Rafa, Can Roca, Extebarre, Azurmendi, etc) and the most fun and best food I had was at Bar Tickets. The same dedicated crew runs both venues....the food is the substantially the same. I hit Tickets four times, and it is hard to imagine having more dishes or better dishes.

My strategy is to turn my night over to the servers and chefs, and just eat whatever they bring by. The crew at Tickets is so skilled and sensitive that you can develop a relationship with them in minutes. One sits at one of three or four bars staffed by chefs and waiters (their rank is displayed by the number of stars on their shoulders....though Albert is not above sending out a commis with a four-star jacket...just for laughs). Come back a time or two and they all know who you are, what you already tried, what you drink and what you like. Off menu dishes are there for the asking....well, a little subtlety.... and trust, is involved.

And fun.....I could not get Albert to admit it, but the name of the place comes from dialogue in Willy Wonka and The Chocolate Factory. My favorite bar at Tickets (there are about four....I did two) has the HD plasma TV where I got to watch Real v Barca Copa Real 2nd leg....surrounded by dozens of electronic Hello Kitty's doing their seig heil thing. The dessert cart comes complete with a funky bicycle bell as the chef wheels through the crowd....Adria food is delicious, beautiful....and fun! Food is fun...food is life. Food is not uptight.

My enduring memories of my nights and days at Tickets are: 1)a two star ranked chef at the Hello Kitty bar coming over to explain the cazuela pulpo dish: pigs' feet, garbanzos and octopus....simple and delicious in the Inopia mode. I admired the dish and with full eye contact he said "Este....me encanta!" This dish enchants me. The guy working 16 hours a day is still enchanted by his work. Normally, the under or not paid kitchen guys come nowhere near the guests. Albert has guys with skill, personality, and deep love of what they do.....that you can talk to! 2) my neighbor at the bar during the Real/Barca match was an Italian guy...a former chef at Boulevard, a Michelin one-star in San Francisco. We talked about restaurants, food, politics, soccer. Conversation increases the value of food...the staff at the bar, both chefs and servers were part of our discussions....; 3) My kooky wife pointed out the Willy Wonka thing to Albert, then admired the anise sprouts on his avocado cannoli/crab dish. Albert presented her with a planter full of the sprouts. She carried it everywhere with her in our two weeks....smuggled it back; 4) Badly dressed guy with no reservations had the executive chef come out and make guacamole with mint and erizos (sea urchin) from scratch with a fork and a spoon on a little tray next to the bar. He is ex French Laundry, ex Bulli, ex Who Knows...and is out in the dining room, inter-acting with the guests...even the lowest of us.

Bar Tickets has everything any food and service lover...with a sense of humor....would want.

And you are struggling to get into 41 because.....?

Your Viagra script ran out? You need to impress your banker?

Oh....and my bill for all the food a professional chef could possibly down.....plus a bottle of Cava Brut Nature, with refills....less than 100 euros.

To me Tickets is restaurant heaven....Paris in 1924. Hemingway and F. Scott at the bar.

Good luck with your 41 obsession.

[erha2]

Txacoli,

That is good to hear. I decided to pass on 41 degrees (it's still probably too early to make a reservation for April) and made a reservation at Tickets for my last night in Spain. I will be having lunch at Can Roca that same day but I figure I should be okay by 21:30 for dinner at Tickets, right? It seems most people had great meals at Tickets by just allowing the waiter to bring out a variety of dishes. Did you just give them a limit in terms of price?

[Gav]

I am trying to come to grips with folks' obsession with 41.

Thanks for the write up, good reading. I don't know if you really want answers for the rhetoric but I'll bite in a sense of discussion. I guess on my part it's for the exact same reasons you've picked out in your post I want to go 41 Degrees, namely Adria food, the night turned over to the chefs and the sense that the place is trying to do something more than just serve food on a table.

Why one over the other? It's just a case of trying the most varied amount of dishes. Would love to go Tickets too, but trying to get a booking lined up for both at the same time would prove near impossible I imagine. Surely you're at least intrigued to try it out if Tickets is your idea of restaurant heaven? Your post was more passionate than most I read on here, I can't imagine loving work by anyone who creates and not wanting to experience what else they've done.

As for the serious tone, they list the soundtracks to Delicatessen and Amelie on the restaurants play list, I hardly reckon this is going to be El Bulli. Sure it could be called an obsession staying up to get a booking for a restaurant, but what makes that any different to concert/theatre tickets.

Anyway I managed to get a date in the end for a few weeks time, no blogging, no banker to show off to, just the experience and a maybe a 42nd course of Viagra if the Mrs is willing after all that food...

[tammylc]

Looking to get a reservation for either Tickets or 41 for a trip in July. I know that Tickets reservations start 2 months in advance. 41 claims 90 days on their online booking page, but they also say 100 seats, so I'm not inclined to believe that information very much. And someone below said they were releasing for April in Mid-March? Does anyone have any solid information? Is there a specific time of day tickets are released? I'd read 12 am in one place, i'm seeing 12 pm below... any tips?