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The history of the defunct Can Ravell delicatessen and restaurant begins in 1929 when Ignasi Ravell decided to rent the old Estrada grocery store, located at 313 Aragón Street, right next to the Concepción market in Barcelona.
His dream was, after carrying out a great cleaning, to turn it into a modern grocery store that, taking advantage of its location at the entrance to the Concepción market, would offer quality products.
Its opening hours were longer than those of the market and this fact caused a radical change when it came to modifying the business. One day when the market was closed, a customer came in to see if by chance they had bleach.
At that moment, Ignasi understood that, if he wanted the grocery store to consolidate, he should make better use of its opening hours to offer customers the products within the grocery sector that they might need and decided to convert the grocery store into Can’s delicatessen. Ravell.
In the new Can Ravell, customers would find quality products that would not be offered by the merchants inside the market, who were short on space in their small stalls.
The new project was risky, but it could become a reference in order to attract new clients who wanted more select products. Time and the firm conviction of the owner managed to make his dream come true.
In principle, along with the classic products, it began offering some cooked products that were well received by the clientele for its good preparation. This acceptance led to the preparation of a small space with a large table in the back where the market traders began to taste the prepared products.
What was initially a tasting became the purchase of products to take home and thus the delicatessen was born, which on Sundays and holidays began to sell already seasoned food.
With the start of the civil war it had to reduce its activity due to its proximity to a weapons factory and the insistent bombing of the battleship Canarias.
Much later, November 20, 1994 marked a before and after in the business with the death of Ignasi, which forced his son Josep to forget about his work as a door-to-door deliveryman of the products made in the kitchen, in especially some extraordinary gutters, and he had to take charge of the business.
In a short time, Josep managed to convert the small dining room inside into a meeting place for important figures in social and political life sitting around a large table, converted into a temple of gastronomy.
At the time when Carme Ruscadella managed her restaurant in Sant Pol de Mar with her husband, on Mondays when they were closed, she went to eat at Can Ravell with her husband Toni Balam.
Can Ravell was one of the leading dining rooms for small meals without the prominence of the many-star establishments, but with the enigmatic halo of eating in a grocery store, with the prominence of the raw materials and the preparation.
Can Ravell was a place for small meals and big businesses. The gatherings were for select meals, not massive banquets.
At your meals you could taste freshly arrived elvers or exquisite caviar, washed down with a Bordeaux reserve wine or one of the most expensive French champagnes, without detracting from the great Gran Reserva wines or Spanish cavas.
The legendary Can Ravell Delicatessen was included in the catalog of Emblematic Establishments of Barcelona prepared by Barcelona City Council in 2016 as an establishment of interest.
At the time when things were not going badly, he created a blog in which he wanted to involve his clients in the stories and friendships, although with the closure of the establishment it has already been left without movement, only the small stories of Josep Ravell can be seen. .
Borja Beneyto, author of Cuaderno Matoses, gastronomic specialist, had comments for the famous Charcutería:
“Can Ravell is one of my favorite establishments for many reasons: the enigmatic halo of eating in a grocery store, the prominence of the raw materials, the level of its preparations, the bonhomie of Don Josep Ravell, the complicity of Lucas Díaz Corbalán and your room team… In short, for making me feel at home”.
In recent times and when the shadow of the closure of the establishment hung by a thread, Josep remembered, in 2006, when in his establishment the second tripartite of the Catalan government, José Montilla, Joan Saura and Josep Lluís Carod-Rovira, met in a secret meal to negotiate without being seen by the press. The bad luck of being discovered by the press was due to the coincidence that at that time a day on white truffles was being held. At one point during the meal at Can Ravell, a gastronomic journalist came in who came to the establishment to ask Josep some questions for an article about truffles and found the three politicians sitting at the table.
The debt with Social Security sank the ship and Can Ravell has gone from being a historic grocery store to being history for those who were one day able to enjoy its products. Can Ravell closed its doors on December 7, 2016.
