The brothers of Ca l'Enric open a fork breakfast bar in the Vall de Bianya: "We return to our origins"

Valley of BianyaLa Gracieta is the new restaurant of the Juncà brothers Joan, Isabel and Jordi, who have just opened on the road to Vall de Bianya, which connects Ripollès with Garrotxa. The establishment is very close to their restaurant Ca l’Enric (one Michelin star) and l’Hostal, and when you take the turn-off from the road, there is a clearing where you can park well. “In the region, there is a great tradition of hearty breakfasts, and La Gracieta, the owner of the restaurant, who lives upstairs, proposed that we take over the premises,” explain Joan and Jordi just as they are putting the finishing touches on before opening the restaurant. The siblings believe that taking over La Gracieta is a gift: “We are returning to our family origins, to a bar, where our parents started, and which Joan, the eldest brother, remembers. I, who am seventeen years younger, didn't experience it,” explains Jordi Juncà, the chef.

Inside La Gracieta, three blackboards explain the dishes available. Each one indicated with its price, just like the bottles of wines and sparkling wines, which have their price handwritten with a white marker. “I’ve seen it done a lot in the wine bars of Burgundy, having the price on the bottles, and I wanted to do it too,” says Joan, who will be the waiter at La Gracieta. At the table, take note of the sandwiches: they will be called planxats [for the way they will be prepared] and will be made with perol sausage, Mas Farró cheese, and onion; with loin, bacon, cheese, and onion; with French omelette or potato omelette, or with Iberian ham. They will also make bikinis with sobrassada, honey, and cheese, and with cooked ham and cheese. The bread they will use is from the La Nàsia bakery, in Llocalou.

Meats, small plates, and salads

On another blackboard, the Juncà brothers have listed the grilled dishes, which they will start every morning with wood from La Garrotxa: botifarra, chicken, xurrasco, entrecot, lamb chops, xistorra, secret de poc, bacon. And also small dishes made with eggs, fried meatballs, beans with bacon and perol, and every day, a different stew. They have also planned salads: tomato, onion, and Kalamata olives; cod salad, and tuna salad.

“From five in the morning, cars pass by the road, which has a lot of traffic. We will open at 7:30 in the morning until 4 PM in the afternoon, and the kitchen will be in service during all these hours,” explain the brothers. Breakfasts were the only meal they didn't serve between Ca l’Enric and l’Hostal, so now they know that their workload is increasing, and they have already thought about how to distribute it. “La Gracieta is a restaurant without reservations: you can stay ten minutes or an hour, and it can be an early breakfast, a hearty breakfast later, or lunch.”

All in all, it's a new project that excites the brothers very much. “With La Gracieta, we want to join the tradition in the region, which is abundant, of going out for fork breakfasts,” they insist, and they mention that starting in September, they will begin the works to move Ca l’Enric to the top of the mountain. “We haven't decided yet what we will do with the downstairs space of Ca l’Enric. We know we can't close it, because it holds the family's legacy, from our generations.”

While they think about it, at La Gracieta you can already eat sandwiches and also tripe or perol sausage with beans from Santa Pau. At the same table, there can be diners who opt for different types of breakfast. “We are not inventing anything either, because we will do what tradition dictates: high-mountain Garrotxa wood grill, meat from local suppliers, from Corominas, from Plaça d'Olot; we will also have our own cured meats, such as llonganissa, minced by hand and not by machine,” explain the brothers. In fact, Ca l’Enric's homemade llonganissa has become a great attraction. They serve it as a tapa as soon as you arrive at the restaurant, and some have asked if they can buy it to take home. “We don't make enough to sell it; it's only for the restaurant. And now I am drying some, and in December I will have more new ones,” explains Joan Juncà.

In addition to meats and cured meats, cheeses, also from the region, are also highlighted. They list the producers they buy from, such as Casimiro de Mas Farró. And the wine, by pitcher or by the glass, preferably natural wines. “And the desserts, don't leave them,” they tell me. There will be flans, crema catalana, grana de capellà, braç de gitano, cheesecake. “La Gracieta can seat forty to fifty people at the tables and at the two bars,” the siblings point out.

The stews will change daily. One day they will make stuffed squid and the next rabbit with onion. With stews, there will be no fixed menu: "Otherwise, the restaurant becomes a food warehouse, and we don't want that." When a dish is finished, it's finished. And the next day will be another day. Oh! And there will be vegetables too. In summer, whatever is in season, like green beans with potatoes, with a good drizzle of extra virgin olive oil and a pinch of salt. La Gracieta is the fork breakfast restaurant where the Juncà brothers want to be happy. “Enough of all these brunches and gyms. We must maintain our tradition,” they conclude.