This month we speak with Tarek Fresno, a Barcelona native, music aficionado, world traveler, and bartender at the historic Bar Marsella in the neighborhood of El Raval for seventeen years.
Founded in 1820, Marsella is the oldest bar in the entire city; generations ago, it was Ernest Hemingway’s favorite hangout, and a hot spot for artists and intellectuals of the 19th and early 20th centuries. Dalí, Gaudí, Picasso and many more were known to stop by for a drink or three. The bar’s signature cocktail — absinthe, the star drink of 19th-century Parisian bohemians — has remained the same despite the passing of the years.
