Truly grand older hotels can be off-putting for their pretention, or stuffiness or the many details that speak to a time long gone and for many, good riddance. But often that misses the nuanced beauty of what these early 20th and 19th century palaces share with us — their stories. Luckily, as a child, there was a period when my father had the money, he loved to travel and a great hotel was an important part of the whole experience. What I took away and still resonates is not just the physical space, but the essence of the type of people who take pride in true, authentic, proud, and professional service was embedded in me. Like meeting Fabio, the bartender at the El Palace in Barcelona.
Now we have hotels of all sorts, from the boutique to the spa to the affordable chain that provides a good bed. But there is another class: The Grand Hotel. The older, heavily adorned palaces where people did not just come to sleep and eat and move on but to pause and experience its grandeur, its essence. Yet, the physical space is really only the vessel for what makes it grand: the people who work there and their passion to be the best.
Such is The El Palace, formerly a Ritz, of Barcelona. Having wandered in by pure serendipity, I had to ask: have we forgotten, or have any of us know, what makes a great hotel? The barrier of $$$ gets in the way, but there are ways around it where you can get the delicious taste of elevated, personal service…at any 5-star hotel bar.
And that is my advice: the rooms may be too expensive to stay there, but you can always get a drink at the bar and get a taste of what true, personal service means.
The El Palace gave us Fabio. A bartender who had mastered the art of conversation and bartending; one who knew the history of this grand hotel and shared it with pride. He loved his job and the people he met. I had the urge to take his picture, but then, sitting in this palace, I realized that was crass and not of the age or demeanor being called for.
He poured a generous Macallan 12, and made the best French Martini that had ever graced a glass, topped with a light sprinkling of shaved cherries.
As we moved through light conversation, he told us about the book that held the century-mark history of the grand hotel. He had to go to the library to get it — his pride was manifest. He made special mention of the section of autographs of famous patrons: famous politicians, movie stars, Rockers and others of renown.
Where Mick Jagger sat with the Stones and shook hands, only to immediately use sanitizer each time. (Fabio lifted his left eyebrow to show his judgment.)
Freddie Mercury spent a month in a sitting room near the bar composing a song called Barcelona, which bombed. Terrible song.
How Franco (FYI: dictator for looooooong time) filled it with indigent people during the 1940s to shame it as a status symbol, a continued cultural assault on Catalan region…
Salvador Dali, when the surrealist with his signature mustache, liked to people watch in the regal lobby until they recognized him at which point he would dash away…
And then there was us. Sitting, having the perfect drink with Fabio…
Outspoken Traveler 
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