Many are familiar with New York’s Museum Mile, which brings together the best museums in just one kilometer, or Madrid’s Golden Mile, where the city’s most luxurious stores are crammed into a few meters. What many may not know is that in the center of Barcelona has formed a golden mile of sweets, a route of just a few hundred meters where we can find up to five of the most prestigious bakeries in the city.
On this tour there are century-old stores, instagrammable cheesecakes, sweets that are like jewels or the best croissant in town. All this in a tour of less than five minutes that walks through the medieval streets of the Borne district and always under the watchful eye of the Cathedral of the Sea, the ideal setting for a walk where the sin of gluttony is the protagonist.
Jon Cake, the cheesecake that reigns supreme on Instagram
The tour starts near the Citadel park, in this pastry shop that only makes cheesecakes. Although it’s on a small street, the place is easy to find: just look for the lines that are always in front of it.
Although it opened recently Jon Cake now makes more than 600 cakes a week. Its blue cheese, idiazabal or brie cheesecakes are a success that has a key ally in Instagram. Buying a creamy slice, taking a picture of it and then eating it on the way to the next stop on this route is already a common postcard in the city center.
馃搷 Carrer d’Assaonadors, 29
Pastisseria La Tarta, an express trip to Uruguay
So near and yet so far from Jon Cake is Pastisseria La Tarta. So close because it is on the same street, just thirty meters away, and so far because in front of the kilometric cheese queues of Jon Cake, La Tarta is a small oasis of calm, a real secret of Assaonadors street that allows you to sit on a chair to cross an ocean and reach Uruguay. La Tarta prepares handmade pastafrolas, alfajores, tortas fritas or facturas para mate, for an audience with as many voices from here as accents from there.
The homely and familiar atmosphere of the place invites you to order a coffee, sit at one of its few tables, and enjoy that quiet conversation that Uruguayans or Argentines have when they meet to drink mate and let the afternoon pass between quiet jokes and sips of infusion.
馃搷 Carrer d’Assaonadors, 19
Turrones La Campana, centuries-old sweets
It won’t give us time for the coffee to take effect. Just 50 meters from Jon Cake and La Tarta, is Turrones La Campana, a candy store with 130 years of history. In La Campana they have been making nougat since the great-grandfather arrived from Alicante, the land of origin of this sweet, in 1890.
The store, with the same appearance as always, has a thousand anecdotes to tell and is a living history of the city. You can find out some of these anecdotes by asking the great-granddaughters of the founder while tasting the yolk nougat which, they say, is one of the best in town.
馃搷 Carrer Princesa, 36
Demasi茅, the cinnamon rolls that cause queues
We put the nougat in the bag for later, because the next stop is only three stores away. Demasi茅 is another place that accumulates queues outside its door, this time to try the fluffy cinnamon rolls it makes and which are a hit. Its dozens of varieties and the smell that announces its presence just meters before arriving at the place have made it an essential stop to pause and have another coffee (this one without sugar, please!) on this route.
馃搷 Carrer Princesa, 28
Brunells, one of the best croissants in the city
Although we have just finished the cinnamon roll, it is time to get back to work, again, very close. Three locations (yes, again) away from Demasi茅 is Brunells another sweet temple of the city. The bakery is another two-hundred-year-old classic that recently reopened after a time in the doldrums, winning the award for best croissant in town right away.
Its renovation includes a cafeteria reminiscent of Willy Wonka’s chocolate factory. Sitting at their tables one can taste the traditional sweets that are made and see through a glass case how those award-winning croissants come out of the same oven that has been working for two centuries.
馃搷 Carrer Princesa, 22
Hoffman, the doyenne of Barcelona’s sweet shop
We finished this tour without time to burn the calories consumed. Walking a couple of hundred meters, we arrive at Hoffman the queen of gourmet pastries in the city. Their croissants have also won awards more than once, and understandably so. In addition to the classics, its display cases showcase those filled with mascarpone, chocolate or pistachio, which are pure gluttony.
But if you want to take the sweet to the next level you can also try the designer cakes, real jewels, fine, delicate and delicious, an ideal finishing touch to this walk through the sin of gluttony.
馃搷 Carrer Flassaders, 44
The last bite can be taken on the way to the cathedral of Santa Maria del Mar, right next door, to make room, atone for sins and ask for forgiveness (or not), because we will surely return another day to sin.