Sssssh…maybe I shouldn’t mention it, but the Pipa Club is one of Barcelona’s best-kept secrets - a haven of calm amid the madness that can be Plaza Reial, just off Las Ramblas.
While tourists, preyed on by prowling gangs of bag-snatchers, queue interminably for a table at one of the over-priced restaurants dotted around the square, you can take yourself off for a drink in the quirky surroundings of the HQ for Barcelona’s pipe smokers’ club, discreetly tucked away in the corner.
After you’ve found the buzzer, and walked up three flights of stairs, you’ll enter a converted apartment to find the English-style ‘Sherlock Holmes’ pub, decked with portraits, film stills and posters of the great eccentric detective, and you’ll find a small cabaret-style stage and dance space, a dining-room and a pool-table room.
As you wander the linking corridors you’ll see a quirky collection of pipes in various stages of manufacture, including a pipe that once belonged to Dalí, and a collection of old tins, pots and packets of tobacco, and you’ll find a league table of local pipe smokers. Yes, pipe smokers meet here, in the members only lounge area, to charge their pipes and puff away, hoping to be the one whose bowl lasts longest and score the points that will put them at the top of the table.
But it’s not just pipe smokers who meet here - the club hosts a range of meetings and activities. There’s a regular program of jazz gigs and tango and milonga classes. The movie actor Javier Bardem has been known to call in to chill out, as do a good few quite well-known writers.
It’s a cool, friendly, comfortable atmosphere to meet up with friends for a drink, a smoke and a chat.
Details about this spot
Pipa Club | Bars, Music | Beer € 3.00
Plaza Reial 3 | El Barrio Gotico (area map) | +34933024732
Mon - Sat 18:00 - 03:00, Sun 20:00 - 01:00
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