La Bona Sort | Jordi Ginabreda Studio

“La Bona Sort” tapa’s restaurant is sited in an old manor house documented since the sixteenth century; a large ashlar work frontage that overlooks Carders street, the old road from Barcelona to the Vallès county. Because of its privileged location, between Born and Santa Caterina districts, the building soon became a well-known hostel, “el Hostal de la Bona Sort”, departure point for stagecoaches and couriers and accommodation for travellers bustling from and to Barcelona. After that, it was occupied by a bulk wine shop first, and a restaurant then, which has made it to present days run by the third generation of the same family. It preserves the typical catalan hostel structure: a big courtyard, its attic and the stables.
All this historical record was determinant when Jordi Ginabreda interior design studio took care of the project for updating the appearance of the place. Nowadays, the business is located in the old stables and it extends through the old hallway and courtyard its huge partially covered terrace. A series of ashlar work and brick diminished arches link up the inner space, where the intervention is focused, while the exterior terrace remains untouched waiting for an eventual second phase of the project. The sixteenth century stone walls are the perfect backdrop in a proposal that centers its strategy in covering the whole place with a sort of old patina giving it a sense of antiquity. A travel to the present departing from the rich history of the place.
The first step of the refurbishing consisted in cleaning up thoroughly the original stone walls after decades of neglect. The large central ashlar work arch separates the two main areas; the bar and entrance zone from the dining room which, in turn, opens to the courtyard through an impressive brickwork arch. These arches divide spaces, create a rhythm between them and define specific intervention areas. The use of continuous cement flooring helps to unify the entire place while the fact that it has two different shades of grey helps each part keeping its own identity.
The main part of the restaurant is placed in the old stables, that’s why wood and stone are the materials of choice looking for a new expressiveness. The sidewall that runs the entire restaurant longitudinally is covered with a layer of aged oak wood linking visually the different ambiences. Mosses and lichens grow on it, as an echo of years of dampness and abandonment. Years of abandonment that also justify the illumination of the main dining area provided by a thick spider web of wires and filament light bulbs. Aged wood also forms the perimeter bench and sets up a structure in the middle of the dining area which is inspired in the old eating troughs for animals and by its central position it creates a segregate passage for the staff and arranges the diners disposition. Dim lighting and the inclusion of old rickety Jieldé lamps recrafted specially for the occasion complete the dialogue with the past.
This journey that leads us to the present couldn’t obviate today’s language, and it is in the bar and entrance zone where it strongly shows up in the shape of modern stools lacquered in bright colors. The marble bar, with its ceramic tiled vertical face that turns to create a ceramic tiled strip on the floor where stools are placed, also meshes with the vocabulary of contemporary interior design. To culminate this link with our time, Jordi Ginabreda has designed a huge metallic lamp that also works as a glass hanger with several light spots that illuminate the bar and call passers-by to get into the restaurant.
Past and present shake hands to face the future in this old catalan hostel turned into a restaurant. A place where nowadays travellers, as those in the older days, find a cozy shelter in their never-ending bustle from and to Barcelona.