Working It

Last week of July. Between the unemployed, the tourists and the ones who started their holidays early, the only people who seem to be working are those selling either beer, fake Prada totes or themselves. Or slaving in the restaurant business.

Yeah, while it used to be nearly impossible to locate a decent eatery open in high summer, this year most restaurants have cut short their holiday breaks. And one recent opening, started by four youngsters with resumes that include stints at El Bulli, Alkimia, Drolma and London's Locanda Locatelli, hardly closes at all.

That place is Libentia, the latest of the town's bistronomics - the growing phenomenon of bistros, mostly with young owners, serving dishes with haute cuisine twists but without haute cuisine prices. And so the four partners are all still on the fresh-faced side of thirty, the tasting menu is priced at the wallet-friendly side of forty and the menu del mediodía below twenty.

Closing only for the last week of August, you can indulge in the quartet's culinary concoctions during most of the Italian invasion. And at that point Caldeni, another noteworthy bistronomic will have re-opened just a few blocks away. Operación Bikini may have to be aborted early this year.

Libentia, Còrsega 537, Eixample Dreta - 93 435 8048 · closed August 24-30

Caldeni, Valencia 452, Eixample Dreta - 93 232 5811 · closed until August 17

by AAl