Lukumás (Gràcia)

If there’s one neighborhood in which a café serving Greek donuts could put down roots, it’s definitely got to be Gracia. That’s after all the birthplace of Lukumás, a small establishment frequented by workers of all stripes, moms with their kids, college students, and everybody in-between. This diverse crowd all share one thing in common, and that’s lukumás. This sweet is basically fried dough in the shape of a ring (i.e. the classic, timeless donut), and comes glazed, with sugar, or filled with chocolate, cream, marmalade, and any other combination you might hope for.

This delicacy is often served on Greek beaches, where street vendors offer these bites of bliss at very low prices. The fact that we can enjoy these treats without leaving our city is all thanks to the hard work and good sense of Petros Paschalidis, a native of Greece living in Barcelona who decided to try his luck with an old family recipe. Needless to say, the result has been beyond successful, to the point that the business has expanded, opening another shop in the neighborhood of the Raval. Nor would it be strange if in coming years we saw the brand dotted throughout all the city’s districts.

The recipe for success, in this case, is as simple as it is efficient: fair trade coffee and organic juices alongside the traditional lukumás, made the old-fashioned way in a bakery designed in the manner of those that Petros’s parents had back in his native Greece. The super-sweet offerings are topped off by the strogylo, donuts without a hole, and full of fillings of all kinds; the lukumaki, the hole of the lukumás and also filled with goodness; and, for the insatiable among us, the double lukumás.