Disfrutar Restaurant
The design project takes off from various starting points:
On one hand the site, unique and challenging in its layout as well as its location, requires a strong solution. We nd a locale with a small, narrow façade on a busy street in the Eixample area of Barcelona. The space widens, relaxes and becomes lled with natural light as we cross the characteristic city block of the Eixample area until we reach the patio where the locale opens up onto a large terrace.
On the other hand are our clients, a unique and risky team of chefs, and the values which they hope to transmit with this, their second restaurant, Disfrutar (Enjoy). With it they have made the jump to Barcelona from Compartir (Share) in Cadaqués, after years working as head chefs in El Bulli, one of the best restaurants in the world. From the very rst encounter they speak of the importance of quality, naturalness and humility in their cuisine. It is their intention to transmit something of the essence of the Mediterranean sea and people, their respect to its history and heritage, and their admiration to its beautiful privileged nature. Their vital attitude invites us to experience with all ve senses and enjoy the pleasures of good life and good food.
We clearly differentiate two spaces or environments, a more urban and active space towards the city, where the bar and winery are located, and a more natural and relaxed space towards the interior patio and terrace, where the main dining room is situated. And in the center of the two spaces, as a link between the two, we find the kitchen, the heart of the restaurant, open to the curiosity of the guests who walk through it.
The ceramic material is present throughout the different atmospheres, thereby bringing us closer to the values that our clients wish to transmit: naturalness, humility and respect for the history and heritage of the Mediterranean. But in each space it is transformed into a new material which helps us to make each area unique. The entrance area contains more urban references, like the metallic structures of the antique Ninot food market across the street. In this area we use ceramics in a colorful, artistic way, with panels of monochromatic tiles which surround us as if they were part of a deconstructed mural by Miró, the artist.
The kitchen is the oven of the restaurant, both real and metaphorical, as it is from there that all activity emanates. Here we use ceramics in their most humble and rugged format: pieces of, baked bricks in their natural color, form a permeable limit through which the guests can see the interior of this oven, golden and warm. Passing through the heart of the kitchen we arrive at the main dining room, a wide luminous space which visually mimics the terrace and which invites us to open our gaze and our spirit, transporting us away from the city to a more natural environment. We are embraced by white walls, ceilings and floors, surfaces with openings in a chaotic order, reminiscent of Mediterranean towns. The limits of the space are drawn by these openings and windows which allow color to enter the space, always Mediterranean, like the green of the bushes, the yellow of the genista or the blue of the sky.
