Editor’s note: We regret to report that Taverna Can Roca has closed.
In the neighborhood of Sant Andreu we encounter very few city visitors wandering the cobbled streets or peering at the 19th-century two-story houses that pepper this district. Through the doors of Taverna Can Roca, we find even fewer. This is a place that can be considered muy del barrio.
What hit us when we stepped inside on a recent Saturday morning were the exuberance and noise of the busy throng sipping red wine and enthusiastically tucking into huge baguettes and Can Roca’s famed Catalan esmorzars de forquilla. These “breakfasts with a fork” are a departure from the usual coffee and pastry that Barcelonans grab to start the day.
As we propped ourselves on a bar stool for the inevitable – but short – wait, we felt the faint rumble of the subway beneath our feet and soaked up the electric atmosphere. The owner, Laura, showed us to our table and proceeded to tell us what we could choose for breakfast, as there’s no printed menu: tripe with chickpeas, stuffed or grilled pigs’ feet, cap i pota (head and leg of pork), stuffed squid… Offal may not be our first thought for breakfast but the braised tripe with chickpeas, bathed in paprika sauce, would convince the most skeptical eater and is really worth giving a try.
Laura brought our carafe of wine – so what if it’s 11 a.m.? – as we ordered our plate of pork meatballs with cuttlefish. Less than a year ago, Laura lost her husband Josep Maria Solé Roca, who died while at work in the tavern. Roca’s grandmother first acquired the place in 1952, and his mother had passed it on to him. Josep was considered the soul of Can Roca, and, as Laura explained, “He liked a good strong breakfast to start the day and was a champion of the esmorzars de forquilla.” It is clearly still difficult for Laura to talk about her husband, but as our plate of meatballs and cuttlefish arrived, she gestured towards the wall to Josep’s portrait, watching over all the clientele.
We’re sure Josep would have smiled to see us devouring the meatballs, lightly caramelized and sitting with miniature pieces of soft, stewed cuttlefish on a mound of tender, creamy baby white beans. We dipped a crusty chunk of bread from the laden basket into the tomato sauce, sharpened and soured with a hint of vinegar, flecked with tiny peas and earthy saffron milk cap mushrooms, rovellons, which are at the height of their season at the moment. The whole dish was brought together by a dash of deep green extra-virgin olive oil and a smattering of raw garlic and parsley, which are used to finish so many Catalan dishes.
If our stomachs need easing into the morning, there’s always the half baguette sandwiches brimming with French omelet and bacon or sausages topped with a pickled green pepper or two or drizzled with parsley oil and blanketed by a generous helping of pungent Grana Padano cheese.
The wine we ordered came in a carafe, and groups might get a porrón, the traditional glass vessel with the narrow spout that can be passed round the table to ensure everyone gets a drink but no one’s lips touch the bottle. (Invariably more will end up down our clothes than in our mouths.) Yet you don’t have to finish it all; you pay only for the amount you drink. As we settled our bill, Laura returned from outside with yet another cloth bag bursting with long loaves for her hungry customers. We nodded our appreciation and thanks to Josep as we left.
January 21, 2016 “I’ve Come and I’m Gone”
Metin Akdemir is a filmmaker based in Istanbul. In 2011 he made a short film about […] Posted in Istanbul, Street Food Masters
June 12, 2015 Le Café du Monde
With cafés popping up all over the country, from the arty boutique coffeehouses of […] Posted in Tbilisi
November 15, 2016 Damas
At the end of Rua da Voz do Operário, the main road that leads up to the hilltop of the […] Posted in Lisbon
Published on November 08, 2013
Related stories
January 21, 2016
IstanbulMetin Akdemir is a filmmaker based in Istanbul. In 2011 he made a short film about street vendors in the city. The film, “Ben Geldim Gidiyorum” (“I’ve Come and I’m Gone”), won several awards in Turkish and international film festivals, and we think it’s a very valuable piece of work that captures a side of…
June 12, 2015
TbilisiWith cafés popping up all over the country, from the arty boutique coffeehouses of Tbilisi to the Lavazza kiosks in villages like Zestafoni, it is easy to forget the humbler days of Georgia’s coffee culture, when an “Americano” was a chemically enhanced instant coffee powder in a stars-and-stripes-emblazoned packet added to a cup of hot…
November 15, 2016
LisbonAt the end of Rua da Voz do Operário, the main road that leads up to the hilltop of the previously sleepy Graça neighborhood, is a new, hip Lisbon kitchen that is reflecting the city’s growing hunger for great food and a good time. Damas, as the name indicates, is run by two women who…
