Anecdotes

There was a time when there was no celebrity passing through Barcelona who did not visit the picnic areas.

In 1973 Jack Nicholson and Maria Schneider were filming in Barcelona “The Reporter” by Antonioni. The actor became a regular at the Merendero Cataluña where he always asked the Anxoveta for the same dish: “a Lobster Mexican style. That is to say, very spicy. Every night he asked for a spicier one”. The cook ends up putting all the chilli peppers and pepper he had in the mortar. Impossible to eat that Lobster that the great Nicholson ate without blinking an eye. 

The anecdote is closed by Jordi Coloma from the Merendero de la Mari. Years later “Jack Nicholson and Michael Douglas showed up at Casa Costa. The surprise is that Nicholson ordered a simple grilled chicken”. His stomach probably did not forgive him for those Mexican-style lobsters.

The VI Fleet

The American sailors were regular customers and were sometimes the victims of the jokes of some anonymous neighbor. Usually when, with a few drinks too many, it was difficult to throw them out. More than once some anonymous waiter, eager to finish the day, played the bugle with the “retreta” (return to the barracks) to warn the sailors that it was time to return to the ship. They did not know that it was a fake, nor did they know that they were in a neighborhood with a lot of jokes.

The clandestine Paella

This photo is historic. It was 1976 and the communist party was still illegalized. Santiago Carrillo with a wig and incognito in the Merenderos. If he was to be arrested, at least with a full stomach, he must have thought.

You may also be interested in

More articles