"We're celebrating 20 years of Xemei, and we've opened Bar Super to give back to Barcelona what it has given us."

Brothers Stefano, manager, and Max Colombo, chef (Venice, 1975), have just opened Bar Súper opposite the Santa Catalina Market in Barcelona, and within a few minutes of arriving, I realize the importance of the location. Montse from the Alec Ous stand brings them dozens to the restaurant. The butcher tells them he's prepared the butifarra just as they suggested, with calçots inside; in the fall, they say they'll make it with calçots.

This is how Bar Súper has put together its menu, with market-fresh, seasonal ingredients, from what they buy right across the street. And it wasn't the intention of the twins, born in Venice, to open a third restaurant in Barcelona in addition to all the Can Pizza pizzerias they run with a partner. Xemei, the first, was twenty years old this year; Brutal, on Princesa Street, twelve years old.

They were looking for a space to convert into Brutal's production kitchen, but they just happened upon the space of Bar Súper—bright, spacious, with a good kitchen and a handsome bar—and they felt the urge to return, the same one that made them stay in Barcelona, to which they now want to give back everything they'd learned. They were clear that they would make "simple market cuisine," as the two brothers say. After some renovations, they are now open.

As sommelier, they have David Garcia, equally efficient and helpful; in the kitchen, Jordi Colpani, who strives for the best cooking of fresh ingredients. Who arrived in Barcelona first of the two of you? — I arrived two years before Max, who was a chef in Venice. I was working in industrial design.

I found the space for the Xemei restaurant, on the Promenade de l'Exposition, and told my brother about it. Perhaps if we had been from the city, we wouldn't have opened the restaurant there, but we really liked it. And this year we celebrated 20 years since we opened Xemei, which is still the only restaurant on the entire street.

I didn't see any pasta dishes on the menu at Bar Súper, which is in a beautiful, brightly lit space. — There isn't one. We should also tell you that we just opened, but the idea is to offer uncomplicated, market-fresh dishes.

We don't have a menu; it's the same dishes for lunch and dinner, from Wednesday to Saturday night, and you can eat for an average of €25. It's not as cheap as eating from the set menu, but it's not expensive for à la carte either. We review the letter.

— We have artichokes, which are still available. Peas, squid, docks, mackerel. In addition to the fish mentioned on the menu, we can have others, because the fishmonger, Mercè, tells me every day that she has them.

Yesterday afternoon, because the Santa Caterina Market is open two days a week until 8 pm, she told me that she had tuna and prawns from San Carlos de la Rápita, so we bought them. Last night we already offered them some. So we make dishes that we like to make, with fresh produce, and not so much dishes that are trendy on restaurant menus, which you end up finding in most establishments.

In fact, Mediterranean cuisine is this, and it's what Italian and Catalan cuisine have in common. Wines are also very important at Bar Super. — Like Brutal, but with nuances.

At Brutal, we were very radical twelve years ago. Radical because we opted only for organic and natural wines. After all these years of radicalism, we've relaxed, and since we also have many producer friends who can't be included on the Brutal menu, we've included them in Súper.

So at Súper, we have a smaller menu with fewer restrictions. I mean, we haven't confined ourselves to organic and natural wines, but rather we've broadened our horizons. We have many designations of origin.

We believe we're in a good moment now because there are DOs that had been very commercial that now have other realities, with new generations of winemakers who are making wines in very different ways. This is happening in France and also in Catalonia. It's a very good moment for wines.

I'm echoing an idea you just mentioned. You're saying that you can find the same dishes in most restaurants in Barcelona? — Yes, that's true. On the other hand, experience with the product, knowing how to cut it well, practicing one way or another to cook it, has been lost.

Not everything can be steamed, sautéed, blanched, or stewed. We've realized that young chefs have no connection with the product, which means going to the market to buy it, then cutting it in the kitchen and deciding how to cook it. In many kitchens, the ingredients arrive prepared in a pre-cut form, which means the same onion from Figueres arrives pre-cut.

And I can understand why they do it, because we know there's a very significant problem with staff shortages, but the onion itself, the same way of preparing the onion, is very important. If we chefs don't buy ingredients at the source, from the producers, at the market stalls, then this world will be lost. The other day I read that a fishmonger in the Sant Martí neighborhood has closed.

Well, it's a shame because a world has been lost, what existed because of the relationships the fishmonger fostered with the neighbors. We, in Venice, learned it that way. We knew the fishmonger from our whole lives, the fruit and vegetable stall—it's the world we grew up with, and we couldn't cook any other way.

What's more, the only way a professional can feel passionate about his job is through the product. If the fishmonger tells you they have good fish, you start to get excited about the delicious dish you can prepare. And the same goes for vegetables.

I've also seen a lot of vegetable dishes on the Supermarket menu. — Yes, whatever is in season. Asparagus, chard, turnips, bay leaves, broad beans, artichokes.

We've rented an artichoke field in Gavà for years, and in the summer we grow tomatoes. We use a lot of them at Xemei. Since we're talking about Xemei, which has been around for twenty years, we're reviewing its dishes.

Some have remained the same since the beginning. — There are ten basic dishes we haven't touched; they're the ten basic dishes of Venetian cuisine, which we've been improving over these twenty years and which we want to maintain because people return to the restaurant and want to try them again. I'm thinking of risotto, sardines, spaghetti with squid and its ink.

I love these places in big cities where when you return after many years, you find that dish you love so much. And this is becoming increasingly difficult to find, because people want something new. We're lucky that we started twenty years ago, and that's how we established it, and that's how it's worked for us.

Now I don't know if our philosophy, as we conceived it, would be a winning one, but it didn't exist back then. He has created a school in Barcelona. — Over the past twenty years, many chefs have passed through our doors, eventually opening restaurants.

Do you know Lombo? In homage to us, whose last name is Colombo. Our cuisine is faithful to Venetian cuisine, where you can also eat well. I confess that I once went to Venice with your list of recommended restaurants and ate very well.

And in Rome, I always recommend Fratelli Trecca, which, when I've been there, I've thought of you because of how well I ate. — Because there are some very good places in Venice. The ones I always recommend are Osteria Da Masa, Antiche Carampane, Il Covo, La Bomba, and Paradiso Perdido.

And the best, for its good value, is La Palanca, located on the island opposite Venice. In Italy, the landscape changes, and every 25 kilometers you'll find a different cuisine for this reason. Finally, tell me what your latest projects are.

— Max wants to return to Venice to open a restaurant. It's a project he wants to pursue next year, already thinking about when we're older. And I think he'll do very well, because that way, when we retire, we'll have a place to go to eat and drink in Venice.

Now, I'm in love with Barcelona, and I don't see myself doing any other project other than here. I always think: where would I be better off than in Barcelona? I can attest that he has very good friends. In the time I've been talking to you, I've seen how everyone loves him, greets him warmly, and hugs him.

— It's been twenty years in Barcelona! Oh, we have another project. In the fall, we'll start catering at Xemei. We've done some for Italian weddings, but starting in September, we'll get serious about it.

In addition to weddings, of which we have two in the fall, we'll also be preparing dinners at people's homes. and corporate events, where companies ask us to prepare breakfasts for their break, and to make savory and sweet dishes. Speaking of sweets, I really enjoyed the dessert at Bar Super.

Especially the caprese cake. — Well, in the summer we'll also have ice cream, which we'll make ourselves. And we'll open all these windows—you've already seen there are quite a few—all with views of the Santa Caterina Market.

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