The Roca brothers’ ecosystem continues to expand in Girona. Now a few kilometers from the city. The intention that they announced in the summer of 2022 to undertake an ambitious project in Castell Sant Julià de Ramis, on the Sants Metges mountain, begins its journey next Thursday the 16th, when Restaurant Esperit Roca will open its doors, one of the spaces that will make up the Esperit Roca complex, as they have decided to call the site of the old Fortalesa. There they propose to “continue moving forward and face new challenges of conceptual, spiritual and recreational growth.” It is a space, they add, “where we can make our teams grow, activate internal talent and build a gastronomic scene.”
The new restaurant is the first of the spaces with which Esperit Roca begins its journey, which they hope to have ready in a few months. The gastronomic proposal will focus on two tasting menus that include the Celler’s historical dishes (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 Vilablareig), where until now they offered the same concept of creations that reflect the evolution of the brothers’ cuisine, will focus exclusively on holding banquets. To access the new restaurant you will have to go through the cellar that they have located in the spectacular dome that presides over the central part of the castle. It is a winery with more than 80,000 bottles with which Josep Roca, who has always claimed to be a wine waiter, makes a dream come true.
The CCR sample. Cuina. Consciousness. Recerca, open to the public, will offer a visual tour of the history of Celler de Can Roca, which began 38 years ago and reflects the different creative lines of its cuisine. Next to the exhibition is the distillery (the name Esperit Roca comes from this line of liquors based on distilling the surrounding landscape), which can also be visited. This space will also have a store where they will offer everything from their own line of distillates to products from Casa Cacao, Rocambolesc or Roca Recicle (objects they create with the restaurant’s bottles).
The upper part of the castle will house the Hotel Esperit Roca with 15 rooms on the Turó del Sants Metges and with 360º views of the surroundings. A hotel that they hope to have ready by mid-2024. The rest of the initiatives that Esperit Roca will include will be announced as a project continues to advance that will bring together many of the areas in which the brothers have been working, both in salty cuisine as in the world of desserts, ice cream or chocolate, in which Jordi, the youngest of the brothers, continues to be immersed, or Josep Roca’s distillates.
Joan Roca has explained to La Vanguardia that it is a project that they are very excited about and that allows them to explain its history and creative process. “It is a restaurant that will have, in addition to a spectacular wine cellar, an exhibition space that allows us to understand much better what we have done, how and why; a space that explains more things than a restaurant can tell through its cuisine, with audiovisual content and other exhibition material.” At the same time, according to the eldest of the Girona brothers, the new project allows them to “regenerate both ourselves and the team in enthusiasm because it complements the entire ecosystem that El Celler has developed in Girona and its surroundings. Without moving we have created a project that gives us energy to continue having fun doing what we like most, which is cooking, serving and caring for those who come to our homes.”
The place, the Castell de Sant Julià de Ramis, is an old military fortress from the late 19th century that was never used as such and was once bought by the jeweler Ramón López, who built a museum dedicated to jewelry, a hotel or a restaurant, which Jordi Cruz once ran, as well as a museum dedicated to the bizarre art of Quim Hereu. The fortress was built next to a small Iberian town called Kerunta which, it is said, served as inspiration for the Romans to found Gerunda 2,000 years ago, which is why there is a legend that Girona was born on the Sants Metges mountain.
