At some point, going down to the Borne was something common: nothing more common than eating in one of its tascas or restaurants to continue having a drink along the passeig and, if the night went on, to end up at the Magic. The city is changing and this neighborhood, now very much dedicated to tourism, has much less gastronomic offer for the local public, but now, the few iconic places left in the neighborhood have joined forces to open a beautiful tapas house.
The historic establishments are Xampanyet, Passadis de’n Pep and La Bodega la Puntual (next to Xampanyet), which belongs to the Varela Group (Casa Varela, Estupendu). These three, together with the chef of the latter group, Carlos Allué, have opened Galante, a restaurant located in a beautiful old hardware store from the early twentieth century that is now a tapas house where it is impossible not to stop when passing by.
Why go down to the Borne to eat at Galante?
Galante is in the premises that for many years was the Foro, an Argentine restaurant, which has now become a tapas restaurant where the window displays canned goods, cans and hams as at one time it must have displayed screws and wrenches to attract customers.
When we stop to salivate in front of the window, we see a central table, where cold dishes are cooked in the dining room: Russian salad, sausages cut at the time, preserves that come from La Ribera (centenary business that survives a few meters away) or various types of olives. There is also an oyster bar.
One can sit and be seen in front of the wooden windows or in the reserved areas, rooms where the hardware store used to be separated by high glass doors and worked wood. Even those tables are where the hot food arrives. Meatballs with capipota and fried potato cubes (a tasty dish for 14€), the tortilla fea de bacalao (a classic of the Varela group), fricandó croquettes and Iberian feather noodles.
The menu is a mix of all the bars that make up the four founding owners: from the light tapas of La Puntual to classic Catalan dishes from Varela. In general , Catalan food and tapas that allow both a simple tapas and a dinner with everything.
To drink, wines from Vila Viniteca, also from the neighborhood. Everything to toast looking at the shop windows and take a trip back in time to two Bornes, the early twentieth century, when the restaurant was founded and the neighborhood was the center of the city, and the end of the same century, when the neighborhood was still a place where all Barcelonians could go down to find quality Catalan food.