The ecosystem of the Roca brothers continues to expand outside the walls of Girona. The purpose they announced in the summer of 2022 to undertake an ambitious project in the castle of Sant Julià de Ramis is about to be launched with the opening, on Thursday of next week, of the restaurant Esperit Roca, a of the spaces that will make up the Esperit Roca complex, as they have decided to call what was previously known as the Fortress. There they propose to “continue to advance and face new challenges of conceptual, spiritual and playful growth”. It is, they add, about “growing our teams, activating internal talent and building a gastronomic scene”.
The new restaurant is the first of the new spaces, while they hope to have the rest ready by the middle of this year. The gastronomic proposal will focus on two menus that include the historic dishes of El Celler (the 6/2 formula with six savory dishes and 2 desserts, and the 2/6, with two savory dishes and six desserts).
Mas Marroch (in Vilablareix), where until now they offered this same concept of classics from the brothers’ kitchen, will focus exclusively on holding banquets. To access the new restaurant you will have to go through the cellar that they have placed in the spectacular dome that presides over the central part of the castle and that contains more than 80,000 bottles. With this, Josep Roca, who has always vindicated himself as a wine waiter, makes a dream come true.
Next to the dining room, the CCR exhibition. kitchen Conscience. Recerca, open to the public, will offer a visual tour through the history of the Celler de Can Roca that began 38 years ago. Next to the exhibition there is the distillery (the name Esperit Roca comes from this line of spirits that are the result of distilling the landscape of its surroundings), which can also be visited. In this area there will also be a shop where they will offer products from Casa Cacau, Rocambolesc or Roca Recicla from the same line of distillates (objects created with the restaurant’s bottles).
At the top of the castle there will be the Esperit Roca hotel, with 15 rooms on the Sants Metges hill and with a 360-degree view of the surroundings. The rest of the initiatives that will include Esperit Roca will be announced as a project continues to progress that will bring together many of the areas in which the brothers have been working, both in savory cuisine and in the world of desserts, ice cream and chocolate , in which Jordi, the youngest of the brothers, continues to be immersed, or the distillates of Josep Roca.
Joan Roca explained to La Vanguardia that the new project makes them very excited and allows them to explain their story and their creative process. “It is a restaurant that will have, in addition to a spectacular wine cellar, an exhibition space that allows a much better understanding of what we have done, how and why; a space that explains more things than a restaurant can explain through its cuisine, with audiovisual content and exhibition material”.
At the same time, according to the eldest of the brothers from Girona, the new project allows them to “regenerate in excitement both ourselves and the team, because it complements the entire ecosystem that El Celler has developed in Girona and its environment Without moving, we have created a project that gives us energy to continue enjoying doing what we love most, which is to cook, serve and attend to those who come to our homes”
The place, the castle of Sant Julià de Ramis, is an old military fortress from the end of the 19th century that was never used as such and was once bought by the jeweler Ramon López, who built a a museum dedicated to jewelry, a hotel and a restaurant, which Jordi Cruz once directed, and also a museum dedicated to the eccentric art of Quim Hereu. The fortress was built next to a small Iberian town called Kerunta which, as explained, served as inspiration for the Romans to found Gerunda 2,000 years ago, so the legend says that on the hill of Sants Medges there Born in Girona.
