Barcelona Tapas Restaurant will reopen in Clayton in mid-August

By Iain Shaw // June 5, 2023

After an absence of almost two years, Barcelona Tapas Restaurant will return to Clayton in mid-August 2023. The Spanish tapas bar will relocate to 7810 Forsyth Blvd. in the former Mayana Mexican Kitchen space. 

Barcelona’s original location at 34 N. Central Ave. closed in September 2021 after almost 20 years serving tapas in Clayton, making way for the construction of the mixed-use Bemiston Place development. 

“I've been looking around Clayton, because we wanted to stay in Clayton and continue to do business there,” said owner Frank Schmitz. “But nothing has really been suitable. And so finally, I found the location at 7810 Forsyth Blvd.” 

Measuring 1,600 square feet, the new location is around half the size of the original. The restaurant will be very similar in appearance to its predecessor, with those signature French doors, Spanish mosaic tabletops, and a number of posters, tchotchkes and other decorative pieces from the original Barcelona. 

Schmitz said the resurrected Barcelona will feature a very similar menu to the original restaurant, with an expanded lunch menu. That menu will include rotisserie chicken, which will also find its way into Barcelona’s empanadas and croquetas. “I’ll feature our popular pan de cristal, which is the Spanish version of a French loaf – very light, airy, crunchy, makes a sandwich very light,” he said. 

The drink list will include plenty of Spanish wines, include rosé and cava, and the bar will also offer white and red sangria. There will be around three beers on draft, with Schlafly Beer served exclusively.

The restaurant will seat around 50 customers indoors, with an open kitchen and bar area as the space’s centerpiece. Schmitz said that around 15 diners will be able to sit at the counter while chefs prepare food and a bartender pours drinks right in front of them. The restaurant will have a few seats outdoors on the sidewalk, but Schmitz said that he won’t be able to replicate the European sidewalk cafe feel that the old location offered. 

Barcelona will open seven days a week, serving food from 11 a.m. to 11 p.m. with later opening hours for bar service. “That might mean 12 o'clock, that might mean 1:30 a.m. on the weekends,” Schmitz said.