There is no perfect street in a city, but some come close. That's what happens to Enric Granados. It is one of those streets that has been a victim of its beauty and tranquility. It is an oasis. It was already a superilla or a green axis more than 20 years ago, long before these car-free roads spread and became popular in Barcelona. It is surrounded by the busiest streets of the Eixample. Avenida Diagonal at one end, Balmes and Aribau flanking it, and Aragó crossing it. And in the middle of the gray of these streets, an escape route, full of trees, where pedestrians have preference and bikes can circulate safely.
On Enric Granados, you don't work; you rest, you meet, you stroll, you walk. It seems like a place to breathe and escape, even for a while, from the frantic pace of the surrounding streets. Perhaps that's why it has had to pay the toll it has paid. That of the terraces. It has become an example of the monoculture of restaurants and a symbol of noise problems.
It is the street in the Eixample with the most terraces: 60% of the establishments have one; in fact, there are more terraces than blocks of residential apartments, 115 to 114, according to data from the Barcelona City Council. Because Enric Granados is the street of encounters, of lively conversations, of dinner before a drink, of get-togethers after work; it is the street of waiters who greet with a hola, ¡chicos! or who take all the time in the world to make you a designer tea or serve you some pancakes. It is the street of the city's first more hipster establishments, like the hamburger joint El filete Ruso or AutoRossellon, of brunch spots surrounded by much more traditional ones. The restaurant business, however, is not the only toll this street has had to pay. As is happening throughout the city, it is increasingly difficult to find residents here. According to one of the main real estate portals, all the apartments currently advertised on this street are for seasonal rental. And not particularly cheap.
The restaurant business is not the only toll this street has had to pay; as is happening throughout the city, it is increasingly difficult to find residents hereBut its almost perfect street condition leaves us with good images.It leaves us with the image of two neighbors, two mature men, with very modern plastic-rimmed glasses and trench coats anticipating autumn, with their dog, who meet, greet each other, and chat. The image of a boy in sportswear, resting on a bench, eating an ice cream with a happy face, the image of the children's play area just below Aragó street full of children. That of the small clothing stores, collectible items, a greengrocer, a butcher, a haberdashery, and art galleries that coexist and survive on a street that also has Barcelona's modernity in its DNA.
Modernity and what is not so much. The street also has a National Police station and a bar right in front of it called DNI, and its owner could precisely be a retired ex-agent. There is also a nail salon called Hola, guapa and one of those stores with shelves full of a thousand things that goes by the name of Abundante 2.
But what now most catches my attention are two neighbors who do not have a home. A boy and a girl who live outdoors at the confluence with Avenida Diagonal. They are always standing, they don't ask for anything, they smile and talk with Glovo delivery drivers and the neighbors who help them and bring them food. Nobody knows too much why they are there or how long they will stay. They are like the guardians of the street in Barcelona that could almost be perfect.