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Rachelle wanted to experience a British-style afternoon tea and the historian in me geeked out at the chance to explore the infamous Watergate Hotel, so we were both pleased to reserve afternoon tea on Sunday at the hotel’s Kingbird Restaurant. It has a kind of cool 60’s vibe in terms of decor. We had a choice of about three dozen different teas, and were given more savory sandwiches and sweet desserts than we could eat in one sitting (plus honey, clotted cream, and raspberry jam). My tea choice was Passion de Fleurs, a white tea with hints of rose, apricot, and passionfruit. Shelly’s was Wild Banana Chai with wild Thai bananas mixed with chai spices. I didn’t see any burglars sneaking in but the sandwiches and sweets were lovely!
Interior of the restaurant
Ramon Casas painted a painting of himself and Romeu riding a tandem bicycle with a phrase in the upper right-hand corner: “to ride a bike, you can’t go with your back straight”. They saw it as a way of saying that cultural breakthroughs require moving beyond the norms. A copy of that painting is still on the walls of El Quatre Gats today (the original is in a museum).
Ramon Casas painted a painting of himself and Romeu riding a tandem bicycle with a phrase in the upper right-hand corner: “to ride a bike, you can’t go with your back straight”. They saw it as a way of saying that cultural breakthroughs require moving beyond the norms. A copy of that painting is still on the walls of El Quatre Gats today (the original is in a museum).
Romeu intended the cafe to serve more than mere food and drink. He wanted it to be a place for “food of the spirit”. He soon realized that dream as Els Quatre Gats became the favorite meeting place for the artsy/literary set of Modernisme-mad Barcelona. This included Antonin Gaudi, the architect responsible for Park Guell, the beginnings of the La Sagrada Familia basilica, and several other Modernisme-style residences in Barcelona.
A 17-year-old who was new to town also became attracted to the artsy ambience of Els Quatre Gats. His name was Pablo Picasso. He drank in the influence of the older artists around him. Perhaps he was inspired by the bicycle painting’s caption about breaking tradition. He held his very first art exhibition, about 100 paintings, in the main room of Els Quatre Gats. And, of course, he would later become VERY famous for breaking all known conventions in art.
Romeu intended the cafe to serve more than mere food and drink. He wanted it to be a place for “food of the spirit”. He soon realized that dream as Els Quatre Gats became the favorite meeting place for the artsy/literary set of Modernisme-mad Barcelona. This included Antonin Gaudi, the architect responsible for Park Guell, the beginnings of the La Sagrada Familia basilica, and several other Modernisme-style residences in Barcelona.
A 17-year-old who was new to town also became attracted to the artsy ambience of Els Quatre Gats. His name was Pablo Picasso. He drank in the influence of the older artists around him. Perhaps he was inspired by the bicycle painting’s caption about breaking tradition. He held his very first art exhibition, about 100 paintings, in the main room of Els Quatre Gats. And, of course, he would later become VERY famous for breaking all known conventions in art.
That infamous Watergate facade
Entrance lobby of the Watergate Hotel
September 1, 2024
#USA, #WashingtonDC, #Watergate, #AfternoonTea, #Kingbird
Els Quatre Gats hosted art exhibitions, literary and musi evenings, poetry readings, and puppet shows. It was hugely popular. Unfortunately, Simon was perhaps better at art than running a business. He provided meals to friends at a discount, or gave them away. After six short years, Els Quatre Gats was forced to close in June 1903.
Casas and Utrillo kept its influence going with a literary magazine, but Els Quatre Gats as a cafe slumbered for almost 90 years. Following the death of dictator General Francisco Franco in 1975, three businessmen ( Pere Moto, Ricard Alsina, and Ana Verdeguer) decided to re-create Els Quatre Gats in its original location in the Casa Martí building and also re-create its original decor and appearance. They argued in a proposal to the Spanish government that Els Quatre Gats was an important piece of Barcelona’s cultural history and should not be lost. The cafe reopened in 1978 and restoration to its original appearance was completed in 1991.
Today, Els Quatre Gats prides itself on providing traditional Catalan dishes. Piano music fills the air every evening. It still holds sketching contests. Both locals and tourists fill the dining rooms and enjoy the cafe’s ambience on a daily basis.
Beam Me Over There, honors the iconic Star Trek franchise, whose 5-year mission was to ‘explore strange new worlds.’ We can’t hop across the galaxies just yet, or use a transporter to beam directly from place to place, but there are plenty of alien sights and strange new cultures to explore right here on Earth. Join me as we explore as many as we can.