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 exactly twelve noon, and the chef Joan Roca sits at one of the tables in bar Normal, located in Plaça de l'Oli in Girona, directly opposite the Normal restaurant. Ten minutes later, all the tables are full. Bar Normal only opened a few weeks ago, and it's clear they've hit the mark again with an informal offering, which can be enjoyed for a vermouth (they always open at twelve noon) or for all the other meals of the day. Bar Normal has its own kitchen, but they share the wine and beer list with the Normal restaurant, so you can have some french fries with chipotle sauce, which are Joan Roca's favorite, with a good Catalan wine, from Empordà as it should be where we are, or from Burgundy.

"The opportunity to take over this premises came up," says Joan Roca, who assures that the objective they are working towards is not to open more restaurants in Girona. In the same place where the bar Normal is now, there used to be Simfonia, specializing in cheeses, with an additional premises where they sold them for home takeaway. Simfonia was a benchmark for cheeses in the city, and Joan Roca himself used to go there to eat. The fact is that Simfonia restaurant was complemented by Simfonia shop for buying cheeses, both of which are now gone. "Along with the space of the old Simfonia, we have also taken over 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, which we now sell at Casa Cacao or through the web", explains the chef. Between the bar Normal and the shop, now empty, there is a doorway 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 bar Normal and the shop because those who taste the black vermouth Esperit Roca at bar Normal, if they like it, 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 hall or living room of the Normal restaurant

We continue with bar Normal. "The Normal restaurant, which is already five years old, is a successful project, and that's why we've decided to go ahead with 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 bar Normal is the lobby of the Normal restaurant or the small living room: you can have vermouth there as well as a meal of dishes different from those in the restaurant.

And from the cupboard to the reason for 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 opened the VII in Plaça del Vi, in front of the Girona City Hall, which two years later is consolidated. "We come from a bar, our parents', 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 there. 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 them with food that we have also created".

And he says all this knowing that the global, geopolitical situation causes uncertainty, but, on the contrary, Girona is going through a good time. "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 celebrates forty years

So, the year the Celler de Can Roca turns forty, bar Normal consolidates the project the brothers started. In such a notable 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 in 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 that become key pieces of their projects. And the opening hours: from Wednesday to Sunday, from 12 to 11 p.m.