Good traditional Catalan cuisine is served with a porrón in the middle of Girona.

GironaThe Gascons family has just opened the first restaurant in the old town of Girona that is located in an inhabited area and, therefore, not on the road, like Els Tinars (a Michelin star) and Bell-lloc. "I like the concept of a roadside restaurant. because it is associated with a good place to eat well," says the chef, Marc Gascons, on one of the first days of opening of the restaurant, which has full the three spaces where you can eat: the large room, the interior and a side, with high tables. Marc remembers the tunnel in front of the restaurant Els Tinars that the father paid for so that there would be direct access to the restaurant from: de Rosés, in the Plaça de la Cort Reial, and it is a smaller space than the large rooms of Els Tinars and Bell-lloc, but there is a thread that links them: Catalan cuisine is the protagonist.

From the restaurant's very door, on the glass that allows you to see what the restaurant's interior looks like, the name Fonda Cal Ros is underlined with the emblem of what they cook: traditional Catalan cuisine. Once seated, you can choose from a la carte or set menu. The selection includes cured meats—white ear bullock, longaniza sausage, lomo, and látigo—made in Torroella de Montgrí by Toni Seli. "I want to keep it, and I don't know if I'd even say I want to bring it back, because the porrón is very much ours. We've always had it at home, and that's why we've decided to drink both wine and beer, which I've already explained to Damm that I want to serve in a porrón as well," he added.

And from there begins the menu that the Gascons family has designed to be shared, with a thousand and one dishes on the table, but in order. To begin, the starters, which are served to everyone at once: cold cuts, bread, a Catalan salad, and marinated anchovies with garlic and parsley. Once the starters are finished, the first courses, also served to everyone in the middle of the table: fried artichokes with a signature sauce made with herbs and cheese, and mashed roast potatoes with pot roast. For main courses, also with the same concept, everyone serves: grilled mackerel with burnt garlic and traditional roast cannelloni au gratin. For dessert, Catalan cream; 1-kilo bread roll with honey and walnuts; and strawberries with Chantilly cream. A generous menu that Marc maintains he wanted to create "with a snack-style approach, because it revives a concept they had already worked with at Els Tinars in the 1990s, and also because it evokes a family meal, like when you're at home and you put all the dishes on the table for everyone to eat." "Precisely because of the way we've designed the menu, we think we're a unique offering in Girona," says Marc, with all due respect because he knows that Girona is one of the cities where you can eat best in our house.

The blackboards, with seasonal dishes

Off-menu, you'll find seasonal dishes on the blackboards, which you can add to your menu or choose from to explore further. Since it's spring now, there's no shortage of Catalan-style broad beans and peas with bacon and black pudding. Also on offer are sardines, which Marc makes pickled, and tuna with tomato, onion, and pepper sauté and olive oil. Rice lovers will find a dish with cuttlefish, artichokes, and sausages. "We'll make a different one every week because I always want to use market produce," the chef continues, emphasizing that the menu isn't static.

Finally, at Fonda de Cal Ros, the Gascons family is preparing one of their greatest innovations, unusual even in the cookbook of Catalan cuisine. "At least, that's what the sources I've consulted have assured me," says Marc. It's a butifarra made from Duroc pork and perol, both blended together. "It's the Cal Ros butifarra; it's not sold at any butcher shop, and we arrived at it after many trials, because I was looking for one for Cal Ros, and after trying different ones, I finally decided to try it with both meats." It's a success, and the loving taste, with a spicy touch at the end, will make it a benchmark for the restaurant. On the menu, along with the unique butifarra, you'll find many other dishes: cod—grilled or with beans—fricandó, capipota, lamb chops, roasted lamb kidneys, minister's feet... Sauces include alder and alder, cheese, and desserts for all tastes. For those who like fruit, Marc prepares them with syrup, his own syrup, and you'll find them ready-made at the entrance to the restaurant, on top of the counter, in a clear glass tureen. There are also other sweet dishes, which they make from start to finish: flan, San José cream, grilled chocolate bread with extra virgin olive oil and fleur de sel, and, wait for it, Catalan. What is Catalan? Nougat ice cream with ratafia and carquiñoles. The perfect finale.

Fonda Cal Ros is closed on Tuesdays and Wednesdays. Elena Gascons will be in the dining room; Marc will be in the kitchen. Both combine work with the other two family restaurants, Bell-lloc and Els Tinars.