Obama, Spielberg and Springsteen walk into a restaurant... stars visit Barcelona hotspot

Obama, Spielberg and Springsteen walk into a restaurant... stars visit Barcelona hotspot

Staff at a Barcelona restaurant were left in shock this week after three world-famous customers walked in unannounced.

Film director Steven Spielberg, 44th US president Barack Obama and musician Bruce Springsteen paid a visit to Amar restaurant in the Spanish city on Thursday night.

Staff member Pol Perello uploaded a photo of the stars posing with restaurant staff on Instagram with the caption: “Plaers que et dona aquest ofici” ("The pleasure this job brings you!").

Chef Rafa Zafra told Spanish radio he was thrilled the A-list customers walked into his restaurant and explained that Amar had been recommended by Spanish-American celebrity restaurateur José Andrés, who is close friends with Obama.

Chip Somodevilla/2012 Getty Images
Long time friends Obama and Springsteen at a campaign rally in Wisconsin in 2012 - Chip Somodevilla/2012 Getty Images

The chef for the in-house restaurant at the El Palace Hotel, which features in the Michelin guide, told Cadena SER that the reservation was made only hours before the trio’s arrival.

“The security people told us to please not ask them for photos, but just before leaving, Obama entered the kitchen and told us that this had been one of their best meals and [asked] if they could take a photo with the whole team," he said.

Barack Obama and his wife Michelle were in Barcelona, along with Jurassic Park director Steven Spielberg, to attend a Bruce Springsteen concert.

The rocker’s E Street band kicked off the European leg of their tour on Friday at the city's Olympic Stadium. Springsteen and Obama have been friends for years after the pair met on the presidential campaign trail in 2008. In 2021, they collaborated on the podcast Renegades: Born in the USA.

As well as feasting on shellfish and caviar, the Obamas and Steven Spielberg are said to have spent their visit seeing some of Barcelona’s most iconic sights, like the Picasso Museum and the Sagrada Familia, accompanied by security detail. They are, like the places they visited, world-famous after all!