“Baixant de la font del gat, una noia, una noia, baixant de la font del gat, una noia i un soldat. Pregunteu-li com se’n diu, Marieta, Marieta, pregunteu-li com se’n diu; Marieta de l’ull viu”. Thus begins Baixant de la Font del Gat, a popular sardana by Enric Morera i Viura composed between 1926 and 1927. But, what path did the aforementioned Marieta take? This Saturday, May 9, whoever wishes will be able to recreate it, in reverse. “We investigated and saw that the route could have gone down the old path of the Rec Comtal, which passes near the Bar Mundial,” says Guillem Fructuoso, from the Grup Confiteria, the company that manages this establishment in the Barcelona neighborhood of Sant Pere, Santa Caterina i la Ribera, in Ciutat Vella.
The Grup Confiteria has organized a route that will depart from this bar and will arrive at another restaurant that has depended on them for a year: the renovated Font del Gat. On April 25 of last year, this place reopened, which became popular in Barcelona in the late 19th and early 20th centuries, where every weekend the traditional 'fontades' were celebrated, that is, popular gatherings that were held at various fountains of Montjuïc to dance, eat, and drink. In the case of Font del Gat, located in the Laribal Gardens, in 1925, Puig i Cadafalch built a building there to be the headquarters of the restaurant La Font del Gat, at Santa Madrona promenade, 28, in the Poble-sec neighborhood.
The celebration this Saturday is held, in fact, to celebrate the centenary of the creation of the two establishments, the Bar Mundial and La Font del Gat. “Since we have these two establishments we want to take advantage of them”, comments Fructuoso.
Homage to the rice group
The parade will start at Plaça de Sant Agustí to the rhythm of a brass band and accompanied by big-heads and a human tower group from Barcelona that will be known that day. The route will pass through two other venues managed by Grup Confiteria. The first will be the restaurant Muy Buenas (Carrer del Carme, 63) and the second the cocktail bar La Confiteria (Carrer de Sant Pau, 128).
Fructuoso points out that at La Font del Gat an rice will await them to honor the so-called Colla de l’arròs that was there a hundred years ago: “At the Laribal Gardens people gathered there every Sunday and made rices and thus the Colla de l’arròs was founded, which promoted the creation of the restaurant”.
Apart from the rice, the ticket will include a bowl of gazpacho, bread and water. The party will continue in the afternoon, from 5 p.m., with a rumba performance by the Poble-sec group Muchachito y los sobrinos and, finally, there will be a DJ. The party tickets cost 20 euros and can be bought here.
Recover Barcelona
However, from Grup Confiteria they are satisfied with the reception that the two venues have had from the local public. On the one hand, Bar Mundial reopened last September after keeping its shutter down for almost five years. With a century of history, it consolidated itself as the great seafood restaurant of the neighborhood, with affordable prices and a strong popular spirit. However, the arrival of the pandemic caused the closure of many bars and restaurants. Among them, Mundial, which in 2021 said goodbye. Now it has recovered the essence of its beginning under the baton of Grup Confiteria. “We are happy, not only for the turnover, but because the people who already came with the founders, the Tor family, come here,” says Fructuoso.
And from Ciutat Vella we jump to Sants-Montjuïc, where La Font del Gat has managed, as the owners of the business value, “to attract local people back to Montjuïc”, an area that, they consider, “has been left in the hands of the guiris”. Furthermore, they celebrate that with the reopening here the usual people have also returned: “There are some who tell us that they got married here, that they had their communion here, and this makes us think that Barcelona still has many things to recover”, they conclude.
