I hate discothèques just about as much as I on occasions love to dance. Which would be a problem if not for the fortunate Spanish concept of the ‘bar musical’: A space that combines drinking while listening to good and not necessarily ‘strictly ballroom’ music with the possibility to move your body in a corner of the bar.

The lower part of Raval – the notorious but nowadays quite harmless ‘Chinese quarter’ – hosts quite a few of the kind. My favorite is called La Concha del Barrio Chino – a small, dark and somewhat exotic place in the backstreets of Ramblas.

The decoration is dedicated to the actress and gay icon Sara Montiel, top vamp of Spanish cinema in fifties and sixties and with celebrities such as James Dean, Ernest Hemingway and Gary Cooper on top of her endless list of lovers.

As a perfect match to Sarita’s mysterious features on the walls the music played is mainly flamenco-inspired mixed up with raï, the festive Arabian answer to the Blues. The crowd is from just about anywhere and La Concha is the only place where I on certain inspired occasions have come close to dancing some decent rumba.

During afternoon hours the bar surprisingly turns into a laidback and quiet Moorish teahouse and water pipe-joint.

La Concha del Barrio Chino, C/ Guardia, 14. Tel. 93 302 41 18. Metro: Drassanes.