Vermouth & Tapas Crawl
Do the most Barcelona thing there is — hacer el vermut
Hacer el vermut is a verb here — the hour before lunch, usually at the weekend, spent standing at a bar with a glass of sweet red vermouth on ice and something salty beside it. It is the most Barcelona thing there is and almost no visitors do it.
Poble Sec is the right neighbourhood for it: unglamorous, residential, and home to both a legendary conserve bar and a street lined end to end with pintxos. Go at midday on a Saturday and you will be in the middle of the city's best habit.
Your route
Quimet i Quimet
Poble Sec
Carrer del Poeta Cabanyes, 25
12:00–16:00, 19:00–22:30 (Closed Sun)
Local tip: Standing-room only. Order montaditos and let them pour you a vermut — the salmon-yoghurt-truffle one is legendary.
Bar Calders
Sant Antoni
Carrer del Parlament, 25
17:00–01:30 (from 11:00 weekends)
Local tip: Its little terrace on a pedestrian corner is one of the best vermouth perches in the city.
Carrer de Blai (pintxos street)
Poble Sec
Carrer de Blai
Most bars 12:00–00:00
Local tip: Pintxos at €1–2 each down a whole pedestrian street. Keep your toothpicks — you pay by the count.
La Bodegueta
Eixample
Rambla de Catalunya, 100
08:00–02:00
Local tip: A century-old basement bodega for a final vermut on tap and a plate of jamón. Old Barcelona, intact.
Enhance this experience
Barcelona Food Walking Tour with Tapas and Wine
Crawl the local tapas bars with a guide who knows the owners.
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Before you go
What exactly is vermut?
Sweet fortified wine, served over ice with an olive and a slice of orange. It is drunk before lunch rather than after dinner, and every bar will have its own on tap.
When is vermouth hour?
Roughly midday to 14:00, strongest on Saturday and Sunday. Order one on a Tuesday evening and nobody will stop you, but you will be doing it alone.
How does paying at a pintxos bar work?
On Carrer de Blai you take what you want from the counter and keep the sticks — the bill is counted from them at the end. Do not throw them away mid-session.
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