Barcelona residents have noticed that for some time now certain bars and restaurants in busy areas of the city have been refusing to serve single people, even if they have free tables available. As he recounted lately The countryin neighborhoods such as Poble Sec or Eixample it can happen that single customers are rejected or made to leave the waiters away with some excuse, probably to accommodate couples of tourists or larger groups in their place and be able to earn more: it is a trend that part of a series of adaptations that began with the recovery from the coronavirus pandemic and which is starting to cause some discomfort.
The country for example, he recounts what happened to a resident of Barcelona identified as Eudald E. who wanted to dine in carrer de Blai, a street with many bars, restaurants and clubs with terraces in the Poble Sec. Eudald E. was looking for «the first place at random » where you can read and eat something: in fact, however, it was rejected by three establishments. In the first a waiter had told him that the table where he sat was reserved, but immediately after he got up he had seated a group of tourists; in the second he was told that he could only occupy the seat for twenty minutes. In the third they had told him more explicitly that the place was reserved only for groups.
Another resident, identified as Anna T., told the Country of having been rejected on various occasions by a bar in Eixample, always because she was alone, and even if there were free tables. Anna T. said she had complained to the club employees against what she had defined as a gesture of “unscrupulous capitalism”, asking how much the minimum she had to pay to be able to stay in the club: they defended themselves by replying that it wasn’t for that , and that she just couldn’t sit by herself, she says.
According to the media following the story, the reason is purely economic: in restaurants, groups of people spend more than one person, and tourists tend to be willing to spend more than locals. To describe the situation both the Country that other Spanish newspapers have used the expression “solomangarephobia“, the “fear” to eat alone: not so much because of loneliness, but because of the fear of being rebounded.
The fact of preferring groups of people to single people is part of a series of changes introduced with the resumption of mass tourism in the city, especially from 2022. Meanwhile, to attract tourists, many restaurants have extended the cooking hours also outside of those where you usually have lunch and dinner in the city (more or less from 1.30pm to 3.30pm and from 8.30pm to 10.30pm); some, on the other hand, no longer allow you to sit down just to have a drink, unless you also order food. Still others don’t allow you to sit down for a quick drink after noon.
These trends have been observed and criticized too sui social network and by residents. Patrick Urbano, professor of TV and communication at the Open University of Catalonia, has for example noticed how the maximum time allowed to sit in a city bar is only 45 minutes; the journalist Noemí Vilaseca instead he recounted that she hadn’t been able to sit down in a room to drink a coffee even if it was 4:00 pm: «It’s already time for an aperitif», they had replied. Some residents’ associations have asked the City of Barcelona to intervene to limit these cases.
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