Jacky, happy at his bar

Jacky Barbero

The owner of Al Cartuchito spends his days making his clients happy, and letting them making him happy.

He wakes up at six or seven in the morning, to cook “tapas”. At eleven, opens his place: Al Cartuchito. Behind the bar, whistles a jazz song playing in the background.

Jacky Barbero is a man from Toledo, with French accent who has lived all around the world. Pyrenees, Switzerland, Dominican Republic, and now Seville. “When I get bored, I leave, if I´m comfortable, I stay.” He came back to his home country, Spain, to spend as much time with his parents as he can, while they are still alive. He is also working hard so he can save some money to travel with his three children and his wife for six months. “It is to leave them something,” he says, holding a cigarette in his mouth.

It´s a rainy Friday afternoon, but the clients from Al Cartuchito don’t mind.  Juan, Maribel, Ana y Rafael, a group of friends older than 50, sit around a table full of beers and some coffee. They come every single day before lunch.

“Jacky is a man with a head full of good things, and he is happy”, says Maribel, one of the women of the group, before taking a sip of coffee.

“It has made me feel so good,” she adds. “It is not the coffee, is that all of what I do is made with love.” Answers Jacky.

This man, with an eagle-like nose and big eyes, serves beers and tapas at the rhythm of the music. He just stops to answer the phone or to smoke. On Sundays, he hopes to close at four in the afternoon, but the clients don´t stop arriving. “The problem is that I can´t tell them ´no´. Anyway I enjoy it, the best part of my job is that I get paid for talking to people, for being happy.” He says with a smile.