The 7 Portes restaurant, located in the Porxos d'en Xifrè in Barcelona, is back to full speed. The emblematic establishment has already surpassed pre-pandemic activity levels and is undertaking new projects such as the opening of La Barra del 7 Portes Galvany, a new restaurant that brings to three the number of establishments managed by economist and engineer Paco Solé Parellada and his family.
Before the health crisis, Solé had already decided to open a second restaurant right behind 7 Portes, on Reina Cristina street, which he named La Barra del 7 Portes Pla de Palau. "This initiative has worked very well for us, we don't lose money, we even make a profit, and that's why my wife, Susana, and I have decided to open a second Barra on Amigó street with Madrazo, near the Galvany market," explains Solé Parellada, who immediately warns that "it is not the beginning of any chain."
"We think we have enough management capacity to open a new restaurant and take 7 Portes above Avenida Diagonal. However, I don't know if we will open more, we'll see, but the idea is not to keep replicating this spin off until it becomes a unicorn!" states the owner.
According to Solé, this third child is special, as it means setting foot in a completely new neighborhood where they believe they can access a different Barcelona public. "I am a professor of business organization and, honestly, I don't think this restaurant will cannibalize the original. We believe we can attract a new public, a client profile that usually doesn't go down to 7 Portes, but who will come to enjoy our gastronomy in this new location," he argues. "Finally," he adds, "the most famous paella in Barcelona, of which we have sold more than 7 million servings, crosses the Diagonal."
The 7 Portes group ---a concept that Solé Parellada doesn't like to use--- bills 10 million euros a year and already has more than 120 employees across the three establishments. "We are not a group, we are a family that is lucky enough to have a restaurant where a hundred people work and that gives us the capacity to do things," he emphasizes. He assures that the company's solvency has been key to withstanding the strong collapse caused by the pandemic, although this crisis is now considered overcome, because 7 Portes has been registering higher activity than in 2019 for several months now.
The legendary restaurant, which opened its doors in 1836, serves between 300 and 600 customers a day, on an uninterrupted schedule, half of whom are locals and the other half, tourists. The Solé Parellada family, one of the branches of the oldest lineage of restaurateurs in Catalunya, took over the establishment in the midst of the post-war period, in 1942. "Only two years later I was born, in 7 Portes; this restaurant, which I bought from my father when I was 28 years old, has been my life," says Solé Parellada, who proudly celebrates the 185th anniversary of the historic establishment.
Solé has combined this activity with his academic career as a professor at the Universitat Politècnica de Catalunya (UPC), where he was vice-rector during Jaume Pagès's tenure. Now, as an emeritus professor, he still gives a class from time to time and is part of one of the research groups, in addition to being the vice-president of the CYD Foundation (Knowledge and Development Foundation), chaired by banker Ana Botín.
The new 7 Portes in Galvany is located in a premises that had been occupied by the Ca La Mariona restaurant, at number 53 Amigó Street. The C97 Arquitectes studio and Ignasi Raventós were in charge of the interior design, with a much more modern aesthetic, although there are different elements that recall the original premises of the Porxos d'en Xifrè, such as the typical black and white floor tiles and the mirrors.
La Barra Galvany offers a reduced version of the 7 Portes menu, which consists of more than 80 dishes. Tapas and rice dishes are the protagonists of this establishment, with house classics to start with such as crispy Iberian ham croquettes, Roman-style squid with mayonnaise and romesco, Russian salad or cod fritters.
Starters can be complemented with anchovies and bread with tomato, with a prawn salad on a bed of spicy natural tomato or with a casserole of steamed mussels. One should also not miss the truffled Fiesta Mayor cannelloni and choose one of the multiple 7 Portes paellas to culminate the meal, such as the traditional Parellada fish and seafood paella, the mixed paella or the vegetable paella.