The vermouth culture is experiencing years of boom. Appetizers that end up becoming meals are already a ritual, as are informal impromptu dinners that arise around a few glasses of wine. But it is not always easy to find the right place, especially when you want to try alternatives to what has become your usual pilgrimage spot or when you want to escape the tiresome patatas bravas or hummus tapas. In this sense, proposals like Celler Jordana's clearly become an incentive to leave home and break with monotony.
This establishment run by Manel Pujol opened a few months ago at Floridablanca 88 in Barcelona ---between Viladomat and Borrell---, making a grand entrance into the essential gastronomic route of the Sant Antoni neighborhood. Here, the house vermouth clearly takes a back seat, as the interesting thing about the place is its extensive wine offering and some original dishes that leave no one indifferent, such as the artichoke tartare with Cantabrian anchovies, the smoked cod empedrat, or the salmon, Greek yogurt, and honey coca.
Before starting, two major elements we must take into account: at Celler Jordana there are no stoves, meaning its suggestive proposal is a 100% assembly-based cuisine, that is, combining ingredients of the highest quality with perfect dressings or finished with a burst of heat in a small salamander oven. The second premise: this place does not emerge from nowhere, it is not an experiment, quite the opposite, it brings to Barcelona a proven successful formula that has been triumphing for a decade in the town of Alella, in Maresme.
It all started in 2013, when Manel Pujol, who worked for many years at El Corte Inglés' Club del Gourmet, took over Celler Jordana in Alella, a picturesque grocery store that had been selling bulk wines since 1957. Leveraging his experience at the Club del Gourmet, Pujol transformed Celler Jordana into a wine and gourmet product store with tasting, becoming over the years an obligatory pilgrimage site in Maresme, with an offering of 550 national and international wine references. All these wines can be consumed on site at store price, paying only a small corkage fee.
Pujol had wanted to bring this concept to Barcelona for years and has finally found the location to replicate the formula, albeit with some differences. The menu is the same, but in Alella the shop still plays a more prominent role, while in Sant Antoni it is a space 100% dedicated to tasting, although you can also buy bottles of wine and premium canned goods from brands such as La Brújula, La Catedral, Los Peperetes or Lafuente, which provide the core ingredients for their assembly cuisine.
In the Barcelona branch of Celler Jordana, the wine offering is also more limited than that of its older sibling, but it is enormous compared to the usual wine list of most restaurants in the area: you can choose from nearly 160 references. Wines from the DO Alella stand out especially, making Celler Jordana in Sant Antoni the authentic embassy of this small designation of origin in Barcelona. Thus, we find more than 40 wines out of the 114 produced in the DO, from wineries such as Alella Vinícola, Alta Alella, Can Matons, Raventós d'Alella, Bouquet d'Alella or Testuán, to name a few. The great advantage? They are sold at a very competitive price, avoiding the usual practice of doubling or tripling the cost of bottles that prevails in restaurants.
"I have always considered it incorrect for restaurants to sell wines at an exorbitant price; at Celler Jordana in Barcelona, we are committed to offering bottles at shop price and only apply a €6 corkage fee; if the customer buys the bottle to take home, we deduct it," explains Pujol.
To accompany the wines, the menu offers very interesting sharing proposals, starting with Poget Fine de Claire nº3 oysters, a plate of Cinco Jotas Iberian ham, Joselito loin, Riera Ordeig sausage or a cheese board. It is essential to be surprised by the artichoke tartare (€14.90) or the smoked cod and tomato empedrat. The truffled lentils with foie (€9.90) and the salmon coca with Greek yogurt and honey are also two good choices to pair with whites such as Cau d'en Genís from Alta Alella (pansa blanca) or Blanc Allié from Raventós d'Alella (chardonnay).
The power of flavor goes in crescendo if we opt for suggestions with a touch of heat, such as the spectacular 24-month Comté cheese coca (aged by Xavier), ceps and Maldonado pancetta (€7.90) or the porchetta with Blue Stilton. Speechless. Nor does the truffled Bologna mortadella bikini (€9.90) or the acorn-fed ham one leave anyone indifferent, which we can accompany with the red wines Orbus 2016 from Alta Alella (syrah) or Costa del Maresme 2010 from Alella Vinícola (garnacha).
"I am not a chef, at Celler Jordana we don't have stoves nor do we need them: our proposal is 100% product-based cuisine, not fire-based," says Manel Pujol, who recommends finishing the meal with some chocolate fritters or some carquinyolis, accompanied by a glass of the generous solera wine Marfil Molt Dolç, made with the sun-dried pansa blanca grape.
The average price at Celler Jordana is around 35 euros and, currently, it opens from Monday to Saturday evenings ---except Tuesdays, when the place is closed---, Saturdays also at midday and Sundays only at midday. Pujol is already preparing to double his commitment to the Catalan capital with the opening of a new restaurant on Loreto street, in the Les Corts neighborhood.