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Photo by Katy MacGregor
Santa Madonna, Francisco Giner
Santa Madonna restaurant, nº. 6
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Photo by Katy MacGregor
Carrer Francisco Giner
Carrer Francisco Giner is a typical Gràcia 'village-style' street with popular restaurants, unusual shops and cultural gems.
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Francisco Giner Rios
Francisco Giner de los Rios was born in the south of Spain in 1839. He trained as a lawyer but quickly discovered that his passion was the education of children; in 1876 he opened the Institución Libre de Enseñanza to encourage academic freedom and whose main tenets included co-education, rationalism and freedom of literary communication. Today the Fundación Giner de los Rios continues the work of the radical thinker, who died in Madrid aged 75.
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Photo by Katy MacGregor
Federico Crocella
Italian interior-designer Federico Crocellá has had his studio on the street for three years, and opened his boutique, Wunderkammer, in September last year. He sells furniture, home accessories and jewellery, which he has either designed himself or hand-picked on his travels to markets in France and India. Crocellá chose Francisco Giner as his base because of the neighbourhood’s reputation as a culturally rich and diverse place. “I like the street because it is in such an artistic and vibrant place,” he said. “With my designs, and the pieces I sell, I select the things that I like, and that I think people in Barcelona would be unlikely to find elsewhere.”
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Photo by Katy MacGregor
La Singular
La Singular (nº. 50) is an intimate Catalan restaurant, which has been going for around 15 years. Everything is locally sourced and homemade, and it has a loyal following of Gràcìa residents who come to enjoy dishes such as duck with passion fruit and banana sauce, and chocolate, pear and almond tart.
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Photo by Katy MacGregor
Can Punyetes
Another place to find authentic Catalan dishes is Can Punyetes (nº. 8-10), part of a small chain which specialises in botifarra sausage made by the owner's father in the Pyrenees.
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Photo by Katy MacGregor
Miriot
For a different kind of cuisine, try Miriot (nº. 54), a Brazilian restaurant that serves dishes such as 'moqueca de gambes', a kind of prawn curry.
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Photo by Katy MacGregor
El Pati Groc
El Pati Groc (no. 56) is a cultural centre that offers a number of courses, from cookery to ‘laughter therapy’, family activities and monthly art exhibitions.
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Photo by Katy MacGregor
Raquel Pla and Vincenzo Petrucci
Husband-and-wife partnership Vincenzo Petrucci and Raquel Pla run Italian restaurant Santa Madonna, with the aim of bringing real Italian cuisine to Barcelona, putting quality before cost-cutting, and Raquel said that Gràcia was the only place they wanted to be. “The people living and working here are the type of people we want to visit our restaurant,” she explained. “They are artistic and autonomous people, and understand what it is we are trying to achieve. We already have a steady flow of loyal customers and people we call friends.”
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Photo by Katy MacGregor
Sangenis
If you're looking for an unusual gift for the sports' lover in your life, the place to head here isn't the FC Barcelona shop but Sangenis Sports' Antique shop (nº. 52), where you might find old golf clubs and part of a ski lift from the 1936 Winter Olympics.
Just a hop, skip and a jump from the Diagonal metro station, on the cusp of Gràcia, lies the Carrer de Francisco Giner, an unassuming street bursting with hidden gems. Before becoming one of Barcelona’s city districts in the 19th century, Gràcia existed as an independent town, and if you take a stroll up Francisco Giner today, you soon get a sense of the area’s continued community spirit.
Albert Sangenís, owner of A. Sangenís Antiguitats Esportives (no. 52) agrees that Gràcia is still “just like a small town in a big city.” His antiques shop, opened by his grandfather in 1923, stocks all kinds of weird and wonderful sporting relics. Unique in Barcelona, you can find anything from golf clubs to parts of a ski-lift used in the 1936 Winter Olympics.
At number 6 stands Wunderkammer. German for ‘wonder chamber’, it’s everything the name suggests, boasting a unqiue collection of decorative knick-knacks, stylish furniture and accessories.
The street reflects Gràcia’s reputation as a cultural nucleus. El Pati Groc (no. 56) is a social and cultural centre that sells handicrafts and offers a number of courses, from cookery to ‘laughter therapy’, family activities and monthly art exhibitions. Further down the street, you’ll find the Escuela de Ajedrez ‘Miguel Illescas’ (no. 42), teaching people the art of chess, with courses and organised tournaments.
There’s a wealth of restaurants offering tasty tapas and hearty platos. Santa Madonna (no. 6) is a chic Italian restaurant, priding itself on home-made bread and pasta, and authentic Italian cookery, something which owners Vincenzo Petrucci and Raquel Pla say is “badly misunderstood in Spain.” Next door is Can Punyetes (no. 8-10), part of a small chain of restaurants serving Catalan cusine at a modest price. The speciality, botifarra, is made in the Pyrenees by owner Carlos’s father. Further up, La Singular (no. 50), is a favourite with Gràcia residents, with a worthy reputation for its market specials. And next-door-but-one, Miriot (no. 54) offers a Brazilian flavour, with dishes like Moqueca de gambas (a kind of prawn curry).
At night, the street becomes a hive of activity. There are some fantastic bares de copas, including Le Journal (no. 18), where you’ll struggle to find a seat at the weekend, and El Sabor (no. 32), a lively Cuban bar, where you can enjoy a mean mojito and shake your thing to the rhythm of the salsa.