After visiting wine bars and restaurants in Venice, a couple of friends decided to set up their own wine bar in Barcelona that runs on the same philosophy as our neighbouring country. Miguel Ángel, who's busy pouring glasses non-stop at Zona d'Ombra's bar, confesses that he was seduced by the abundance of mortadella set out on the bars in Italy along with the wine for everyone. Set to borrow from this joyous custom, the two friends wanted to bring the same generosity to their new spot. In fact, Zona d'Ombra is called an 'enoiteca' instead of the Catalan/Spanish 'enoteca' (wine bar/cellar) because it's the word in Italian for places where you can drink wine and have a nibble.
The love of Italian culture is evident here, where, apart from selling wines from around Spain, they've also got a good selection of Italian wines they like, and they also serve up the popular Venetian aperitif, spritz.
Zona d'Ombra started out on day one as a shop that sells bottles of wine, but if you want to stick around and have some goat's cheese croquettes or Iberian ham, you'll just have to pay a €4.50 corkage fee for your bottle, a point where this spot differs from its Italian counterparts, who happily pile more and more food on the bar or your table at no extra charge.
Now that we've brought up food, you have got to try the exquisite bread at Zona d'Ombra that they get fresh daily from Baluard de la Barceloneta. Good wine, good bread... get some good friends and try for yourself.