News and Coffee, Kiosk, Eixample

News and Coffee Kiosks in Barcelona

It’s a strange time to have a food blog. An odd time to be a human. A disastrous time to be in the hospitality business. The stop and start nature of the restrictions that the whole world has to contend with right now is the worst-case scenario for a sector that needs to plan. Casualties will be eye-watering.

There are some tender shoots of life poking through this scorched covid earth. Kiosks! A kiosk renaissance that is happening in Barcelona and Milan and Athens simultaneously. I would point my finger at News and Coffee as the pioneers in Barcelona of this format. Sure there are kiosks all over the city, with a washed-out El Periodico awning, thin magazines and cheap plastic toys.

This is a different kind of kiosk. News and Coffee are easy to spot from a distance with its matt black shell clad in distinctive illustration panels, the thick-lined drawings filled in with primary colours. These are interspersed with the advertisement typical of Kiosks.

This kiosk serves coffee of the craft variety with fresh milk steamed until velvety. To drink as you peruse the well-curated titles on display. This is the place to pick up a hard to track down the magazine.

Though I’ve heard that they had to do much lobbying to convince the powers to allow them to serve coffee, the slog was no doubt worth it. Now that everything is shuttered and restaurants have taken to barring their doors with a table to prevent people from wandering indoors.

No, a kiosk, designed as it is with its insides on the outside. Its laden shelves jutting out like fingers reaching into the world- occupies a rarified and enviable position. Beckoning with temptations to peruse in the relative safety of the outdoors, it’s hard to resist.

And who doesn’t want to treat themselves? I know I do. I’ve spent more days at home in the last year since – well, ever! Time is slow, repetitive; it feels thick and sludgy, like trying to walk through water, the drag and the pull keep me in the same place despite energy expended. There is the click and buy temptation, but I am tired of the tiny screen. Even more of receiving that recriminating “screen time up by x % this week” message. Does that make me scroll less? No, I continue to scroll, but now I feel bad that I can’t control the scroll.

Ah but magazines. A weighty magazine that costs too much to forget it behind the toilet. I will flip and earmark. This will pass. I don’t have a timescale (irritating), but it is a sure thing. In the meantime, News and Coffee picked an ideal time to expand. To be the beacon of plans, we all want to make, craft coffee in hand.

News and Coffee
Paseo de Sant Joan 17, 08010
Avinguda Diagonal, 598, 08021
news and coffee.eu

For a list of coffee shops of Barcelona read the Coffee Guide Barcelona: Specialty Coffee.