The Roca brothers, in the eyes of Toni Massanes, they undertook a trip to the Moon when they embarked on the gastronomic world more than 35 years ago. Since then, Joan, Josep and Jordi They demonstrate, in the form of cuisine, wine and desserts, their passion for serving and caring for their customers. They learned to love cooking at their parents' restaurant, Dog Rock, and then dazzle in the world of high-level gastronomy with its Celler de Can Roca -twice named the best restaurant in the world, in 2013 and 2015-. Nonconformists and restless by nature, they expanded the family with the ice cream parlor rocambolesc, the chocolate shop-hotel boutique Cocoa House and the event space But Marroch. And now, with the intention of opening a new project, they present Normal Restaurant; one more step in your journey.
Normal restaurant, soon in Girona
"The most normal, we will open a new restaurant”. This is how they presented it on social media. The name of the new gastronomic project of the Roca brothers is striking. Why 'Normal Restaurant'? “We want normality, to restore ourselves, to reestablish the context in which all of us who love and live this profession can feel complete doing what we like the most, caring for and serving”, Said Josep Roca for Out of Series.
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"A normal restaurant in a normal corner of a normal city”. They refer to a place that is located in the Plaça de l'Oli, in the Vell neighborhood of Gerona -the city where they were born, grew up and to which they feel very close-. That is why, in this new restaurant, will combine traditional Catalan cuisine -very ingrained in their lives-, with the techniques “That we learned at the Escola d'Hosteleria de Girona and that brings us closer to France and the times that we have to live now”. In short, those aspects with which they most identify: proximity, naturalness and quality.
As will be?
As it has advanced joseph roca In Out of Series, the venue will have a capacity for 45 guest. Of course, they are "in the process of making small changes" in the establishment. Before them there was another restaurant that, apparently, had to close at restricciones that has caused the pandemic on the hospitality industry. Thus, they will maintain the same basic structure, but with the help of the designer. Andrew Carulla, "We are thinking about the aesthetic proposal, under the prism or concept of normality". What do you have in mind for this new project?
An important aspect that has to do with the kitchen itself, is who will be in front of the kitchen of Normal Restaurant. The Rocks have already decided: the head chef will be Elisabeth nolla, who held the same position at El Celler and will be accompanied by Quim Cufre, who will take care of the room and the sommelier.
Another big question is: when will it open? The architects have only advanced that "soon". It also depends a lot on the current situation in the world, in general, and in hospitality, in particular. "We do not have a definitive date on the calendar, it will be as soon as we can, thinking that this "as soon" is as soon as possible in the next months”Added Josep Roca. The ideal thing for them would be "that it was for spring."
Other projects on the horizon?
Faced with this question, the answer is what is expected at the moment: “We are very pending the changing situation that the pandemic draws, uncertain in the calendar ”. The evolution of the projects they have depends on that and on the security protocols, such as Cocoa House which serves as a “space for Casa Cacao's online store and also as a staff dining room. There was talk of a possible distillery for the sommelier's creations, joseph roca; Either way, we will have to wait to find out more about it all.
What the middle man of the Roca brothers did manifest is that they launch with Normal Restaurant because they want “the light at the end of the restriction” and because they are “daring, brave and innocent”. Add that you have to stand up to the pandemic, that "it is time to let projects flow" and that "in crises you always have to look for opportunities."
Be that as it may, the news of the new project of the Roca brothers, world gastronomic references, is hopeful. In the end, what we now want is precisely normal, see that things continue. And what better way than seeing how Joan, Josep and Jordi Are you still taking steps on that trip to the Moon that began so long ago? The Normal Restaurant it sure triumphs.
