La Nova Esquerra de l'Eixample, Barcelona

​What I did and saw: 

Brazilian Jiu Jitsu-
The majority of BJJ gyms in the Barcelona area are in the Nova Esquerra de l'Eixample neighborhood. I tried out a few, but settled on XFit. I went with XFit because they offer No-Gi at multiple times, and access to their sauna, weight room, cardio machines, and other workout areas are also included with membership. The man in charge of the Jiu Jitsu program there is Rogent Lloret, who is a Bellator and M-1 Challenge vet and a Robin Gracie blackbelt. I also checked out ATOS Barcelona and Templum BCN, but they had very limited No-Gi times, didn't have as many offerings in terms of other exercise equipment/facilities (although Templum was close), and they were more expensive. ATOS is run by Andre Galvao's brother Gustavo, and Templum was run by UFC vet Yan Cabral.

​​Where I ate and drank: 

Cerveseria La Més Petita-
​As the name suggests, Cerveseria La Més Petita is a small place, but it is a very quality place. The craft beer on tap is excellent, and they also offer a small but good food selection.

Casa do Açaí-​
Many places in the Barcelona area have lower quality blenders, which means they need to water down what they put in them. This causes their açaí bowls to be more like açaí cold soup. However, Casa do Açaí makes quality, legit açaí bowls. They also have a handful of other good options on their menu, but the focus is açaí.

Santa Anita-
​Santa Anita specializes in crepes, and they have a wide variety of them. They also offer fresh juices and espresso based drinks.

Morrow Coffee-
Located around the corner from Plaça d'Espanya, Morrow Coffee serves up excellent coffee. They are a fairly new spot (they opened in 2017), but they are high quality.

Rooftop Smokehouse-
​The best placed to get anything smoked in Barcelona is at Rooftop Smokehouse.  They have everything from smoked fish to smoked meats to smoked butter. Their products are also sold at places like Paradiso and Two Schmucks.

My favorite thing:

Morrow Coffee and Cerveseria La Més Petita both serve excellent drinks, but my favorite part about the Nova Esquerra de l'Eixample was doing Brazilian Jiu Jitsu.

My least favorite thing:

There's not much to dislike about the Nova Esquerra de l'Eixample area and it is tough to come up with anything negative about the area. However, there are more things to do, see, eat, and drink in other areas of Barcelona.

For next time:

Next time in the Nova Esquerra de l'Eixample I would like to check out a couple Vermouth places, Senyor Vermut and Morro Fi.