Bar Marsella — Restaurant in Barcelona

Being one of the oldest bars in the city it is just perfect for time travelling back to the time of the great bohemians of Barcelona at the turn of the previous century! This is the one place in this city to go if you want to have a glass of Absinthe, as did Picasso and Hemingway. The place is dirty (except for one part cleaned up for Vicky Cristina Barcelona) with cobweb hanging down from the dimly lit chandeliers. Located in a street corner where the ladies of the night (and day) work, in front of a square named after Barcelona's possibly most famous anarchist (who was killed there) and next to a street suitably called Robador this place will give you a feel for what this neighbourhood used to be like. And for all of the above mentioned reasons this place is not for everyone, you don't dress up to go here. Don't expect great service or chatty waiters or bar men, especially if your only language is English. Unless you are a regular they will always serve the Absinthe for you, complete with sugar, fire and water, you doing it yourself is not an option. The Absinthe served is not the one with the hallucinogenic wood worm juice that might make you want to cut your ear off, that one is illegal in Spain (and most other countries in the world for obvious reason, unless you're a bar collecting ears). This is no longer a place where locals go though, the clientèle is nowadays mostly ex-pats and young Americans "studying abroad", trying to prove that they can handle it just as well as...

I can imagine in its heyday, there was live music, dancing and more here. I’d love to see the live music revived but the neighbours complained ( in true Spanish fashion ) and it’s impossible to double glaze the doors as they’re too old. They complained during the 1992 Olympic Games ( WTF) and the bar has stayed silent since. They should at least though, put some swing or jazz music on but it’s possible the owner is tone deaf. Yes, I managed to find out more about this bar than the clueless tourists who visit it and sit at their tables without a care for the history of this place. It’s a bit strange to enter a bar that doesn’t serve tapas in Spain, so I was drinking but not snacking which is a wierd thing. They gave salted chips/crisps but that is a British/American move designed to make you drink more. The owner has worked out that selling drinks and nothing else is the easiest way to make his money so there’s no extra effort or flourish put into the service here. Even a bunch of old wine bottles in the top corner of the bar have not been cleaned since the bar officially opened, I think. They do make a good gin tonic but the absinthe drink is putrid. The sugar cubes do not change my suggestion to stay away from that drink. Yuck. I don’t care if that was Hemingway’s drink of choice but it made Van Gogh cut his ear off. The bar staff are super friendly which more than makes up for the sterile foreigners who...

I was ecstatic to find this bar still in full swing and what's more completely unchanged since my last visit nearly 18 years ago. It is an exquisitely decadent drinking den with 20s style decor, with an antique decrepit interior harking back to the golden era of French "maudits", and to a drinking style interwoven with artistry and bourgeoisie critique. Therefore it is not by accident that this spot is ever so popular for serving the near-forbidden absinthe, complete with the appropriate tools allowing one to adjust it to the desired level of sweetness and dilution. Surrounded by warm colour drapery and curtains, the place looks straight off an impressionist painting (Degas' "The absinthe" springs indeed to mind), its ambiance intact from the bygone past. Kudos to the owners who did what sometimes is best for an establishment: resisting the temptation to embellish and leaving it exactly as it is. Really...