An old bodega is a bit like a classic book. As the book passes from editor to editor over time, each must know how to update it for modern readers, but still preserve its original story and authenticity. In the same way, only a true bodeguero can bring an old bodega to life, keeping its essence while also modernizing certain elements to keep up with modern palates. Javier (“Xavi”) Caballero, current owner of Bar Bodega Gol in the Sant Antoni neighborhood, is one of the latest Barcelona bodegueros taking this step.
After a career change, Cabellero entered the culinary world head on. He started at Moncho’s, one of Barcelona’s larger hospitality groups, with a catering service for large events and 14 restaurants, including the famous Galician marisquería (seafood restaurant) El Botafumeiro, which opened in 1975. Xavi built his expertise and worked his way up, from washing dishes to a role as the company’s director of catering. But it was his passion for local bodegas that led him to his true calling. Frequenting the historic establishments in his neighborhood and enjoying regular esmorzars de forquilla, or “fork breakfasts,” aperitifs and lunches here and there, he became a well-known customer and later a culinary colleague of the bodega owners of Sant Antoni. In fact, a few years back, owner Rafael Jordana hired Xavi to manage Bodega de’n Rafel – another of our old favorites. Rafael had to take time off due to a medical issue, and he knew Xavi was the person who he could trust with the bodega in his absence.
After this experience, Xavi felt motivated and inspired to open his own bar. As fate would have it, Jose María Gol, the second-generation owner of Bodega Gol, who already knew Xavi as a customer, came to him a few years ago with a dreamy offer. He was looking for someone to take over his iconic family bodega, which his grandfather Isidre Gol Solé opened in 1943 – with the lucky coincidence that the family name also means “Goal” in Spanish. Jose María was ready to retire and the offers had started to pour in; even foreign investors had their eye on the classic Bodega Gol. But money wasn’t enough – he wanted to preserve the local legacy and neighborhood identity of the place. The next owner had to be a true bodega lover, a local, a friend.
“I’m a bodeguero!” Xavi exclaims, using the term for a bodega owner, but which encompasses so much more. “Being a bodeguero is very different from being a restaurant owner. The bodeguero improvises much more, is of a different character. You have to roll with the punches and interact much more with the customers. It is more casual, with much less protocol. I like this ‘canalla’ element of it,” he says, referring to a word that means “scoundrel” but is also used to describe a sort of old-school romanticized, gritty vibe of neighborhood bars – the bad and the good. “Our customers not only enjoy the food, but we also have fun together.”
Xavi and his wife Cristina Echaurren took over the bodega in 2020. Their first job (beyond making sure the business survived the Covid-19 pandemic) was to update the decor, preserving Bodega Gol’s identity while bringing in more light – to the space and to the menu. They wanted to continue serving the traditional dishes of the filling Catalan breakfast – like the fricandó, meat stew with mushrooms, made here with pork cheeks instead of the typical beef filet; or callos a classic and very tasty cow tripe stew, as well as the aromatic marinated sardines in escabeche and Andalusian cazón en adobo (seasoned, fried dogfish). But the new owners also wanted to add their own special touch the food, at least during lunch and dinner, using seasonal daily specials to broaden the bodega’s personality – appealing to younger customers while still taking care of the old regulars. “It was a time when I got very discouraged,” says Xavi. “I had to do something!”
To make a change, he needed an extra force on his team. Xavi brought on Víctor Marlés, a young chef with a professional history at high-end local restaurants and an attempt at his own gastronomic project that was shut down by the pandemic. After that, Víctor decided to return to his roots, focusing on his fundamentals in the kitchen. When he joined the team at Bodega Gol, it seemed as if each had found the missing piece. “Víctor and I had a great connection,” says Xavi. “We have the same discipline and we understand each other just with a look.”
Their menu is simple but high quality. “We do a very natural and simple cuisine, all pure ingredients, no suspicious powders or anything.” Xavi explains. Lunch at Bodega Gol includes five or six specials each week. These are dishes that flow with the seasons, with a variety of regional Spanish and wider Mediterranean influences, from the rice dish of the week (always different, sometimes with seafood, sometimes with meat and vegetables), to their assortment of Catalan and Basque codfish recipes, to excellent salads with sumptuous local vegetables, to Italian burrata, and gazpacho ice cream.
As Xavi’s mother’s family is originally from northwest Spain’s Galicia region, there is a touch of Galician influence here and there, such as in the beer and the meat served. The Galician beef is undoubtedly a star ingredient at Bodega Gol. Considered one of the best tasting meats in Spain, Galician beef is the primary protein in the main dishes on the menu, purchased directly from a supplier in Xavi’s mother’s hometown, Monforte de Lemos. One of our must-taste items at Bodega Gol is the 1-kg. grilled Galician beef chop to share, served medium rare on a hot stone to continue cooking to your preference.
Another Bodega Gol favorite is the popular cachopo, an Asturian version of the cordon bleu (though much bigger – its name comes from the word for a hollow tree). Luckily, its meant to share, made with a folded steak of Galician beef, stuffed with zorza (chopped pork meat used for chorizos, already seasoned with paprika and then fried), caramelized onion and Cabrales cheese (a goat-milk blue cheese from the Picos de Europa). The whole steak is closed breaded with a mix of bread and chickpea crumbs, keeping it juicy on the inside with a crispy outside. A cachopo this good is never big enough.
Victor is also especially proud of his cheesecake, made in the famous style of the Basque restaurant La Viña, with a combination of fresh cream cheese and gorgonzola. It’s become one of the most ordered deserts in the house.
The bodega scored its latest “gol” in 2023, when the Guía Repsol, a Spanish food and travel guide, awarded it a coveted “Solete” (little sun). If the Repsol’s “Suns” are equivalent to the Michelin Guide’s stars, the “little suns” are an important recognition for those simple establishments that are really worth the visit, loved by their clients and, of course, serve excellent food. Everyone wins at bodegas like Gol, where tradition and a tasty menu will continue to coexist, hopefully for many decades more.
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