Barcelona Gourmet combines family and food
Shop opened as more people cooking at home were looking for specialty products
One of the newest food shops to open during the pandemic is Barcelona Gourmet on the Danforth, just east of Pape Avenue. Inside you’ll find a curated mix of foodstuffs reflective of the heritage of the family who owns the shop.
“My mom is Mexican and my dad is Spanish,” said Bernardo Larrion, who runs the shop with his wife, Sandra, and their two sons, Emiliano and Bernardo Jr.
“This store is basically all their favourite things. Our two cultures complement each other very well.”
The family also owns Tequila Gourmet, a commissary takeout kitchen nearby.
This past April, Bernardo and Sandra opened Barcelona Gourmet as more people cooked at home and were eager to find specialty products from blue corn tortillas to pimenton.
The family managed to stock hundreds of imported and hard-to-find food items in a tiny space. There are no less than a dozen varieties of cured ham, from the Espuna line of Serrano ham to the more prestigious Joselito cured pork loin and ham.
“The Joselito jamon is very popular as a splurge item,” said Bernardo. And if you want to go even bigger, the store carries whole legs of jamon.
There is a section dedicated to salsas from Mexico and a hot counter with meat and veggie empanadas. Order a day ahead for one of the five varieties of paella on the menu: seafood, marinara, Valencia, vegetarian and black rice with lobster.
Then there is the tinned fish and varieties of seafood preserved in olive oil from Galicia such as sardines, baby scallops, fried mussels and razor clams.
“If you want to go big, the baby eels are amazing,” said Bernardo. “We run out of those.
“We jokingly refer to them as Spanish caviar.”