After being closed for more than a decade, the Raval recovers one of its most emblematic restaurants. Quo Vadis (Carme, 7), which closed its doors in 2013 with 57 years of history behind it, will reopen in the coming days and will once again serve some of its traditional dishes, such as goat’s back or ox tail, that made him a reference in the neighborhood and throughout the city.
Manel Puig, Tomás de la Vega and Gonzalo Ramos are the partners who, according to Tot Barcelona, ??will bring back to life this establishment that was famous for hosting the Liceu’s raves. The business will maintain its original name, which the former owners Martí Forcada and Mercè Bonastre chose because they had been impressed by the film with that title released at the Windsor cinema in Barcelona in 1954, explained the much-missed La Vanguardia chronicler, Lluís Sierra.
Cheese souffle, Provençal frog legs, sea bass with fennel, wild boar civet and bull fillet were some of the preparations that brought success to this house, which practically did not change the menu during its years of existence. walking. Traditional dishes with nods to French cuisine that were made with fresh produce from La Boqueria. “In the high-end hotels, the concierges recommended the Quo Vadis,” Sierra also said. Now, the offering of traditional dishes will be joined by a more informal snack offering that will include tapas, hamburgers and chicken a l’ast.
The new owners have recovered some photographs of famous clients who visited the establishment and will once again rely on the aesthetics that characterized it. However, practically nothing remains of the original decoration of the Quo Vadis (the stained glass windows remain in a room that will remain closed for the moment, they have explained to the aforementioned media).
At Quo Vadis they received up to 100 clients per day on their best days, many of whom were politicians, writers, singers and the Liceu audience. He even got a Michelin star in 1980, which he kept for five years. But the lack of generational change, the crisis, fatigue and the boom in tourism on the Rambla, among other reasons, led to its closure in 2013. Until then, the space had housed the Beerlinale, a business specializing in beer from which will hold the bar.
The return of Quo Vadis joins that of Casa Leopoldo, another classic in the Raval, which has just reopened after several attempts to resume business since the owners retired. In this case, it was the Banco de Boquerones Group that acquired the space, which was a meeting point for writers such as Manuel Vázquez Montalbán, André Pieyre de Mandiargues and Eduardo Mendoza, and where traditional stews and specialties were served.
