Terraces in Enric Granados street to close one hour earlier from Friday night

Bar and restaurant terraces in Enric Granados street, in the Eixample neighborhood of Barcelona, will close one hour earlier from Friday night into Saturday. 

Owners will have to take out of the streets their tables and chairs by midnight on Friday and Saturday nights, and before 11 pm from Sunday to Thursday.

This schedule will also be in place in Gràcia neighborhood squares of Sol and Revolució but the measure will start a day earlier than Enric Granados street.

These are some of the restrictions announced by the city council during summer. The administrative procedure is "slow" but "safe," Pau Gonzàlez, Eixample's city councilor, announced on Thursday during a press conference. 

The council's forecast back in August was that the measure would be in place at the beginning of September.

Officials have been reaching out to the owners of the restaurants that have a terrace on Enric Granados street. 

For the councilor, the measure was necessary as the "equilibrium has broke," Gonzàlez said referring that there are 1,324 chairs across 80 bars and restaurants, while only 1,600 neighbors registered in the street.

Neighbors' rest into consideration

The idea of the city council is to reduce noise and improve neighbors' rest as several noise complaints have been raised in the past regarding night activities. 

"We cannot allow that neighbors' rest is affected," he added, as the city council will defend the residents' health but also take into account restaurants and commercial establishments.

While in Enric Granados, the measure will be in place all year; it will not be the case for Gràcia's squares.

Terraces will close at midnight on Fridays, Saturdays, and evenings before bank holidays, and at 11 pm from Sunday to Thursday, between April and October. Between October and April, closing hours will only be brought forward to midnight on Fridays, Saturdays, and evenings before bank holidays.

'Unfair' and 'curfew'

When the proposal was announced, bars considered it "unfair." However, as a manner of compensating the bars, authorities will allow offering more tables on the terraces. 

"It's a shame!" complained Melisa back in August. She owns a bar in Plaça de la Vila de Gràcia and raised her outrage with the council's measure.  In this square, the measure has already been in place since October 6.

After going through a lot of difficulties during the pandemic, Melisa saw this restriction as a new obstacle to her financial recovery. She did not even believe the measure would reduce the noise at night.

For the Barcelona restaurants' association, the measure is a "curfew" set by the city's council, who they blame for not wanting to make changes, only "reducing schedules by one hour."

David, in charge of the Sol Soler bar in the Plaça de la Vila in Gràcia, told back in August to the Catalan News Agency that he regretted that the obligation to close terraces an hour earlier would only apply to squares and complained that there will be an "unfair competition".

"It's a bit unfair because there will be competition between the bars," David said, who nevertheless agreed with the limitation on the condition that "people's mentality is changed to have dinner earlier." 

As a resident of the neighborhood, he believed that it is a measure that can be good to reduce the noise although it "means less profit" for the bars. "We will have to try to get people used to coming earlier for dinner," he remarked at the time.