La taverna intel·lectual : $b (De les meves memòries)

A wandering writer returns to Barcelona after years in Paris, finding a modest third‑floor flat on Carrer de la Diputació that houses more than his belongings. The building’s ground floor is occupied by Joan Ventura, a warm‑hearted tavern keeper who has turned his shop “La Malvasía” into a bustling bodega‑restaurant. With a spacious garden, a modest wine label, and a kitchen run by his wife and a young chef fresh from La Alhambra, the place quickly becomes a refuge for anyone in need of work, a meal, or a listening ear.

Beyond the tables, the tavern’s salon opens onto the garden, where a rotating cast of journalists, writers, poets and artists gathers for lunch and lively debate. Figures such as an ex‑revolutionary, a struggling playwright, a traveling illustrator, and a mystic poet mingle, each adding their own anecdotes and opinions to the conversation. The atmosphere crackles with wit, generosity, and the kind of spontaneous intellectual camaraderie that makes the tavern feel less like a business and more like a living notebook of the city’s cultural pulse.