Suca’l
By Claire Gledhill
The forn de pa near Hospital Clínic traded for years as Cloudstreet Bakery; the loaves are signed Suca’l now, and the new name comes with instructions – suca’l is Catalan for “dip it,” which is what good bread in this city is for.
The house specialty is panettone, baked all year rather than dusted off for December. Three versions anchor the counter: the classic, one with chocolate and one with chocolate and caramelized pecans that has collected awards and tends to sell out first. Eating panettone in March takes a small mental adjustment, but the bakers here treat it as bread that happens to be sweet, not a holiday centerpiece, and after a slice or two the calendar stops mattering.
The other half of the counter is sourdough, worked through long fermentations with organic flours. It’s the slow route, and it shows in the crumb – these are loaves still worth eating on the second day, which is the honest test of any bakery. Come Epiphany the ovens turn over to roscón de reyes, and the panettone practice pays off where it counts.
There are two more shops, in Sant Martí and Sant Andreu, if this corner of the Eixample is out of your way.