A lot of people think we are a gay bar but we are not, we are a heterosexual-friendly bar. The cultural aspect of it was very important.
The European Court of Human Rights was set up.īrandon remembers: ‘We wanted to make Casablanca different from other bars, to have art exhibitions and local painters. Google was registered for the first time as a private company. That year, coincidentally, José María Aznar was in government and heading for a second term. ‘That was a glorious time for us and for Barcelona.’Ĭasablanca opened in 1998. I found the importer and I found Juan, the person I have shared the last 39 years of my life with.’Īn iconic year for Brandon and Joan was in 1992 with the Barcelona Olympics, during which time they worked as the representatives and the facilitators for the BBC. ‘That is how I met Juan in 1981 because I was in Barcelona and looking for an importer to Spain. The son of a coal miner, Brandon studied French at the University of Oxford supported by a grant, before going into the catering business and managing a number of bars and restaurants in London during the 1970s.īrandon then went into the whisky business and discovered Catalonia. He was born in 1951 in the Rhondda Valley, South Wales. He probably knows more people in the town than many of the local politicians.’ (TP)īrandon, according to another long-term Sitges resident and mutual friend, Dominic Begg, is a ‘cultural activist, extremely sociable and totally integrated in the local community. The former Casablanca cocktail bar in the picturesque Carrer de Pau Barrabeig of Sitges. ‘It’s a bit too early for cocktails,’ he tells me with a mischievous sense of humour and ‘ buen ambiente’ that has defined Casablanca since its inception, at least till Covid-19 limited its activities. But as its co-owner Brandon Jones explains as he approaches his 69th birthday, and his partner Juan Font his 65th, the couple thought it was time to retire while still retaining many years of fond memories.Īs the three of us sit down, at a safe distance, and during the bar’s daytime closure to the public, for our conversation in the intimate softly-lit interior of a bar that for over 21 years has drawn a loyal clientele from around the world, Brandon pours himself a glass of water. The legendary, much loved and unique cocktail bar finally closed its business on 23 October, thus marking the end of an era – for it has made a unique contribution to the cultural and social life of a town that boasts a history of innovation, creativity and civic tolerance.Ĭasablanca, like many other establishments, has suffered a dramatic drop in economic activity during the pandemic. A warm mid-morning, on the first Sunday in October in the Time of Covid and, surrounded by the bright whitewash and deep blue of the old quarter of Sitges, I walk down the steps of the picturesque Carrer de Pau Barrabeig to the discreet entrance at Number 5: ‘Casablanca’.
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