Pastisseria Ideal

 

Located on La Vila de Gràcia in Barcelona, walking into the café is to observe the intimate life of a small portion of Gràcia. I stopped in for a simple breakfast at 9:30, ordered my café americano and two croissants in my moderately passable Spanish, which was understood even if it was not Catalan.

Dating from 1919, the café is a long narrow space with a bar that runs its entire length, save for a small room at the back where four small tables were occupied by regulars. On the walls that hold up the bar, hooks allow patrons to hang their hats or purses, which are still regularly used.  Many mirrors that line the walls, the display shelves and virtually everywhere else gives the café an appearance of being much bigger than it is. 

The clientele is predominantly older people, but not exclusively. Since I was there rather late for breakfast, perhaps this was just a function of timing. The back room seemed informally reserved for regulars. I would occasionally take furtive glances to see what was going on. Most of the conversation took place in Catalan, so I am only catching a few words and had a general sense of the topic. One elderly woman sat and did a puzzle in the newspaper, and occasionally made comments into the more general conversation of the room. Meanwhile, a woman, sipping an expresso, sat at the bar, and listened attentively to a man who had finished his coffee long ago, talk about his recent travels. She would occasionally interject or ask a question, nodding knowingly about his adventures.