There is something intrinsically poetic about the daily dance of the waitstaff, dodging chairs and customers with one hand full and their weight perfectly balanced. It is an invisible art that sustains the social life of our streets, an unwritten choreography that will cease to be a daily routine and become pure sport. Bar Trampolí is preparing to host the third edition of its Gastronomic Olympics, an event that celebrates art, gastronomy, and folk traditions through games and neighborhood competitions.
The event will take place this coming Saturday, October 17, at 12:30 p.m., when the venue will revive a historic discipline: the waiters’ race. For five euros—which includes an official race number and snacks—the first fourteen people to sign up will put their speed and balance to the test on this unique “Olympic” course. You don’t have to be an athlete to attend; those who prefer to watch from the sidelines can enjoy the atmosphere and cheer on the participants during an event designed, above all, to build community and have fun.
A jury that embodies the spirit of neighborhood resilience
To evaluate the runners’ skills, the event will feature a panel of judges made up of true institutions of Barcelona’s hospitality scene. Among them will be Bar Haití, a classic in the Gothic Quarter that has been open since 1957, is now in its third generation, and continues to resist the wave of tourism with its tortillas, croquettes, and capipota.
They’ll also be judging the races from the Pony Bar—the small, charismatic spot in the Sant Pere neighborhood where there’s no room for pretentiousness—and from La Cañada, the Poble-sec tavern that keeps alive the spirit of quality ingredients and vermouth. This latter project is led by Juanpe González and his team, who also run the bars at the Mercat de les Flors and at Bar Trampolí itself.
The event will do more than just test the participants’ mettle. Multidisciplinary artist and drag transmutant Estel Boada will be in charge of livening up the Olympics. Accustomed to navigating humor, performance, and public space, Boada will lend her voice and flair to this unconventional morning of sports, in which the top three scorers will take home their respective Olympic medals. The event, featuring graphic design by illustrator Olga Capdevila, promises to be the perfect excuse to celebrate traditional bar culture.
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