The Roca brothers open a second bar in the heart of Girona: they cook tapas there with an average ticket of €15

GironaIt is a spring Saturday, it is twelve o'clock noon sharp, and the chef Joan Roca sits at one of the tables at bar Normal, located in Plaça de l'Oli in Girona, opposite the Normal restaurant. Ten minutes later, all the tables are full. The bar Normal was inaugurated just a few weeks ago, and it is clear that they have succeeded again with an informal offering, which can serve for having a vermouth (they always open at twelve noon) as well as for all other meals of the day. Bar Normal has its own kitchen, but they share the wine and beer menu with the Normal restaurant, so you can have some fried potatoes with chipotle sauce, which are Joan Roca's favorites, with a good Catalan wine from Empordà, as is fitting where we are, or from Burgundy.

"The opportunity to keep this premises came up", says Joan Roca, who assures that the objective they are working with is not to open more restaurants in Girona. In the same place where the Normal bar is, there used to be Simfonia, specialized in cheeses, with an additional premises, where they sold them to take away. Simfonia was a benchmark for cheeses in the city, and Joan Roca himself used to eat there. The fact is that the Simfonia restaurant was complemented by the Simfonia shop to buy cheeses, both now disappeared. "Along with the space of the old Simfonia, we have also kept this space next to the bar, which is now empty, and in the autumn we want to open a shop where the Esperit Roca drinks can be purchased, which we now sell at Casa Cacao or via the web", explains the chef. Between the Normal bar and the shop, now empty, there is a portal and a church in between, that of El Carme, all in the same Plaça de l'Oli, a few meters from each other. It will be a good dialogue between the Normal bar and the shop because those who taste the Esperit Roca black vermouth at the Normal bar, if they like it, they will be able to take it home; they will be able to buy it at the shop next door. And when I say black vermouth, I mean all the other drinks, including beers and gins.

The lobby or living room of the Normal restaurant

We continue with the Normal bar. "The Normal restaurant, which is already five years old, is a successful project, and that's why we've been encouraged to open this new space, which will complement it". Sitting on the terrace, you can have an aperitif, a beer with some croquettes, or simply coffee after having eaten at the Normal restaurant. We could say that the Normal bar is the lobby of the Normal restaurant or the small living room: you can have vermouth there just as you can have a meal with dishes different from those in the restaurant.

And from the cupboard to the why of the bar, from a second bar, because

And from the pantry to the reason for the bar, from a second bar, because in the summer of 2024 the Rocas inaugurated the VII in Plaça del Vi, in front of Girona City Hall, which two years later is consolidated. "We come from a bar, our parents' bar, and at bar Normal we are recovering our essence," confesses Joan Roca, who adds that the tapas menu has been strategically designed for the place where it will be eaten. "We are in a small square in the center of Girona, where we can eat what we have put on the menu. You won't find hamburgers, for example, because the food they have opted for is what they make themselves. "The drinks, distilled by us, we want to combine with food that we have also created".

And he says all this consciously that the global, geopolitical situation causes uncertainty, but, on the contrary, Girona is experiencing a good moment. "Two major productions have just been announced that will take place in Girona, one is Rapunzel, by Disney, and another, the series Tomb Raider, the year in which Celler de Can Roca turns forty

Thus, the year in which Celler de Can Roca turns forty, bar Normal consolidates the project that the brothers started. In such a significant year, the celebration will begin in September, when they will have a menu of the forty years of Celler de Can Roca. "They will not be dishes we have already made, but forty new dishes with which we want to celebrate the anniversary." This is the idea they have thought of; the other is to get together with the team this summer, more than three hundred workers, in a room at Sant Julià Castle, a space they had not yet used, where they will have an internal party, all together. "It will not be nostalgic, but a party looking to the future".

Finally, at bar Normal you will find first-class customer service. The Rocas have managed to be magnets for good talent, with teams that build loyalty and become key players in their projects. And the hours: from Wednesday to Sunday, from 12 to 11 p.m.