NORMAL | Andreu Carulla studio

After more than ten years of creative collaboration, the synergy between gastronomy and design at "made in Girona" has produced an establishment where you can delve into the fascinating everyday life of Joan, Josep and Jordi.

Fine materials, neutral colours and conventionally Mediterranean lines are the basis for the walls, tables, chairs, dishes, lamps and cutlery of the establishment, where normal is synonymous with sensibility, nature and uninterrupted spontaneity.

Banyoles, July 2021.- This week the Roca brothers' new gastronomic offering in Girona, NORMAL, opens its doors. It is "a normal restaurant in a normal corner of a normal city", as Josep Roca, who together with his brothers Joan and Jordi hold 3 Michelin stars and 3 Repsol suns, explains. With interior décor by designer Andreu Carulla, NORMAL invites you to see, touch and taste the essence of the creators of El Celler de Can Roca, a three-time winner of the World's Best Restaurants award.

"NORMAL is the most direct way to get to know what, for the Roca Brothers, is the ordinary, the logical, the natural", explains Carulla, a product designer to the core who has inexorably succumbed to the temptation of the Roca Brothers and completed his first interior design project. “And what is normal for the Roca Brothers, is incredible for the rest of the world. I've really enjoyed stepping outside the boundaries of industrial design to undertake a complete interior design for the first time and to carry out such an eagerly anticipated project. I want to convey to the diner the meaning of the concept of normal in the language of Roca. Through the touch of a handcrafted tile, the soft back of a chair or the warm light of a lamp, they can feel all the grandeur and authenticity of their kitchen and wine cellar".

This new establishment, with capacity for 50 diners and a total of 12 tables, is located at number 1 Plaça de l'oli, in the heart of Girona's Jewish quarter. Eli Nolla from Cerdanya (1990), until now head chef at El Celler de Can Roca, is at the helm of the NORMAL kitchen, while Joaquim Cufré is in charge of the dining room.

The collaboration between Andreu Carulla and brothers Joan, Josep and Jordi Roca began in 2009 after they met at a celebration with family and friends. Today, the industrial designer works as Creative Director of El Celler de Can Roca and the other creative initiatives run by the award-winning Catalan chefs. The relationship is based on a natural trust and connection, as well as the ability of Andreu Carulla and his team to design unique things, true to the spirit of their projects. NORMAL represents the first interior design project completely carried out by Andreu Carulla. In addition to conceptualising the interior design of the space, he has designed many of the pieces of furniture and lighting that accompany it. In collaboration with local craftspeople, he has thought about and crafted each of the details that bring the NORMAL experience to life.

The Roca Brothers and Carulla: when NORMAL becomes extraordinary

The entrance of NORMAL has a formal and warm appearance, welcoming diners as they arrive in a rather small space and introducing them to the more unique and less vulgar dimension of the concept of normality. Shying away from the garish and overbearing, and instead embracing warmth and closeness, every detail of the space silently prefaces and embraces what is served at the table.

The ceramic lamps, designed and custom-made for this latest Roca Brothers' project, are Carulla's own design. Offering a soft, directed light, these lighting points are reproduced in three versions - one more elongated, one more pointed and one cordless - and are one of the best examples of the serene intimacy that exists in the DNA of NORMAL.

The chairs, on the other hand, have also been specially designed and produced for the restaurant. Reinforcing his maxim of understanding interior design from the design of the product, in order to satisfy the needs of the users, Andreu Carulla explains that, "we saw the need for short, but very comfortable chairs. Inspired by the typical Catalan chair for sitting al fresco", but adapted and with the correct use. With their more generous dimensions than usual, cylindrical geometry and wooden structure, they are handmade and provide extra comfort thanks to the backrest made of nubuck, the finest type of leather, processed in a sustainable way.

Soulful, useful designs that tell a story of artisan wisdom and transmit to the user the know-how of the hands of "normal people" who dedicate themselves to doing what they love most.

This is what NORMAL looks like inside, from the main tables -made with recycled glass from El Celler de Can Roca- to the 'jets' in the bathrooms -which, more than taps, are a fresh water fountain-, to the porcelain plates -basic and elegantly imperfect- and the rack for the 300 wines on the menu made with handmade tiles.

One of them reads "a normal restaurant in a normal corner of a normal city", engraved on ceramic at the beginning of the 'new normal' through the prism of the Roca brothers: more authentic, simple and natural.