When you enter Casa Alfonso, you are most likely to repeat. More than anything because its alma mater, Alfonso García, knows what field he plays in and never rests. It doesn't matter if you just come in for a coffee, as Ricardo Darín did many years ago, he will do everything possible to make sure it's not the last time and he usually succeeds, as happened with the actor. "You can't despise anyone, everyone can be a potential client. And you don't just have to attract clients, you also have to retain them," he remarks. Over the years, the owner of the establishment has been perfecting his technique to continue seducing a clientele that remains loyal to his ham, mainly, but also to his breaded olives, Russian salad, creamy steak tartar or Iberian feather rice. And without forgetting desserts like the chocolate croquette.
"We are an oasis here. When people come to the center, they look for a place to eat and only find restaurant groups or franchises, but they want places with soul," he maintains. Casa Alfonso has resisted in the hands of the same family for 90 years in a Barcelona that has been losing its identity and has become globalized. With an average ticket of 35 euros and a clientele that mixes Barcelonians and tourists, the place preserves its original furniture, even maintaining the floor that was there before the García family arrived, when it was a tannery. "It's a tangible asset. If we changed it, it would look so new that the place would lose some of its charm. Things like that make us authentic," he defends. If the occasion requires it, there is a private room with a few tables.
It all started with Alfonso and Rosario, the grandparents of the current owner, in 1934. The first generation of the business had emigrated from Jaén, from Baeza and Linares, respectively. The first Alfonso was a charcutier and, when he arrived in Barcelona, he started working in a charcuterie on La Rambla de las Flores. Then, with a partner, he opened the germ of Casa Alfonso in Plaza Urquinaona, where Deportes Martín would later be located and where La Casa de las Lámparas is now. In the same space, he ran the charcuterie and the other had a bar counter.
The thing did not go well and they moved to the current location of Casa Alfonso, on Roger de Llúria street, between Ausiàs Marc and Casp, already without the partner. The grandfather maintained the format of the previous place, with a delicatessen and a bar counter, a combination that has been maintained to this day. They also had the upstairs apartment, where the grandmother cooked the dishes (fricandó, tripe...) which she then brought down for the customers of the delicatessen-grocery store, starting to serve hot food and adding the label of a dining house. At some point in history, not only Iberian products and cheeses were found on their counter, and you could even buy seafood.
There have been a few crises over 90 years, and the first came early, with the Francoist coup d'état that triggered the Civil War. In Republican Barcelona, Casa Alfonso did not close during the long years the conflict lasted, although "money had lost its value and everything was barter, oil for bread or potatoes," recalls García. His grandfather was taken one day to be shot but was saved, according to his grandson, because one of the soldiers was his customer and said to leave him alone.
Each generation has introduced changes in Casa Alfonso, and it was the turn of the second Alfonso, father of the current owner. It was the seventies. It was at this stage that one of the house's star products emerged, the ham flute, inspired by the French baguette but adapted to local taste. "Queues formed in the street. This was the textile center of Barcelona, with wholesalers and manufacturers, and everyone came. It was brutal," says García, who started working very young to help make all the sandwiches they were asked for. More dishes also began to be made, expanding the kitchen, and the ham warehouse that had had the first two generations deboning hams every day lost weight. A detail: they have always had a reserve of pigs in Los Pedroches, in Córdoba, and now the company Jamones Juan Manuel is in charge of carrying out all the processes and sending them the ham: "It is our flag." As he cannot stay still, the company has appointed García as head of expansion to pilot the landing in France.
The third generation arrived in the 80s. "That's when my father let me start to have more prominence," says the third and, for now, last Alfonso. His daughter, Claudia, a fourth generation who is already peeking out among the tables, quickly replies: "I have a few more years until they pay attention to me." "I'm the one who messes up," Alfonso continues. When he was just over 20, he went out a lot and saw that the bars were packed at night. At that time, Casa Alfonso was open Monday to Friday from 9 in the morning until 10 at night. "My father used to say that at night the worst of each house comes out. We started opening at night little by little, gradually. I had to do it with 'cremita' (gently)," he recalls. First, they tried with Saturdays until one in the morning, it worked, "and mind you, there was no internet or mobile phones, but the place was completely full." Then came Fridays and Thursdays until they started opening all week.
That's how actors, singers, and spectators from nearby theaters and venues started coming, before and after the performance, reconnecting with those he had met when he had made his first steps on stage. He also convinced the lawyers and judges who were abundant in the area. He had detected that they would go for a sandwich when the trial ended at six in the afternoon and decided to stop closing the kitchen to offer them something more.
But that wasn't all. "I am the inducer of tapas," he proclaims. To pivot towards the historic tavern and gourmet deli they are today, he worked hand in hand with the most recurring customers ---for whom he was still Alfonsito--- to weave a new gastronomic menu, inviting them for a coffee while they told him their favorite dishes, pouring everything into an Excel to see which ones were the most voted and include them in the final selection. Here he does not fail to mention regulars like journalist Josep Cuní, "a regular for the Russian salad," or the late announcer and voice actor Constantino Romero, "no one took away his Rosbif flute with his glass of wine." He also remembers the unconditional fans of spoon breakfasts.
The third Alfonso has anecdotes to stop a train, like when he would sneak opera singers among the diners and they would start singing during the night, with apotheosic moments like the versions of Barcelona by Montserrat Caballé and Freddie Mercury. Or when actor Paco Rabal and his family showed up one day, but they were closed because it was his communion and they had to let them in. Or when he talks about his aunts, Montse and Rosario, "very picturesque," always dressed and coiffed the same, almost looking like twins, with many of their photos hanging on the wall of Casa Alfonso.
But he also doesn't leave out the bad, like the 2008 economic crisis, overcome because he already had many tourists among his clients and they continued traveling, "divide and conquer works," or the pandemic, very hurt by how he believes institutions treated the restaurant sector. "The luck has been that people go out as if there were no tomorrow. Living in the here and now has been established. It shows in the bills at hotels and restaurants. That's why we increased our turnover," says García, who has 26 tables in his establishment in Eixample Dreta.
"Reaching 90 years is a merit, but the goal now is to reach 100. We are already thinking about how to start celebrating the centenary," an indefatigable García announces. With a team of 25 workers, to whom he gives a ham every Christmas, he has more than one pending battle, such as the need to dignify waiters, "pay well and comply with everything", but also for Barcelona to value historic establishments like his, envying the consideration and advantages, mainly fiscal, that their Madrid counterparts have. And he doesn't forget to criticize what he says is "the worst invention" that exists in the world of restoration: the menu.The owner of Casa Alfonso demands that Barcelona value historic establishments like his
He stays in shape and is letting the fourth generation take the reins of Casa Alfonso. There is no other Alfonso now, and it's Claudia and Lucía's turn. The eldest is already serving, after having managed the digital marketing for restaurant groups like Nomo and Andilana. She works in the family business, but has also set up her own digital marketing company to advise the hospitality sector. Without a doubt, her touch is noticeable on the restaurant's social media.