Amateur

Amateur is a slim Poblenou room of bare brick, with bottles filling a wall and a record player standing out in the middle of the room. Everything poured is natural wine, largely from modest producers, and the plates are meant for sharing, marinated fish and pluma ibérica among them, made to keep pace with the wine. Much of the crowd works in the area’s own restaurants and bars.

Reservations exist only for bigger groups and go through a message, so for everyone else the move is to come early in the evening and claim a table before the room fills. Once seated, ask which record is playing and what the staff would pair with it: a good part of the open bottles never reaches the printed list.