The new life of the Adrià brothers

The Adrià brothers land in Ibiza too and change name to the “umbrella” under which they have created a small restaurant empire, Bcn5.0: the connection with the city of Barcelona was too strong, now that they’re also travelling across the sea; the reference to number 5, recalling the number of restaurants designed in Cataluña is no longer current, now that after Ibiza they have plans to invest in Santo Domingo too, with an expected beach club.

The new project in the Balearic Islands is called Heart and has Ferran and Albert Adrià associated with Guy Laliberté, managing director of the Cirque du Soleil; the result will be a place opening at the end of May inside the Ibiza Grand Hotel and will be an original blend of food and entertainment. All this, divided into three segments (of price too), with different standards: Baraka, the basic one, within everyone’s means, that is to say street food and street performers; The Workshop, a mix of show and creative cuisine; and finally the very exclusive La Boîte, defined as “sibarita”, luxurious.

The Adrià hold this adventure very dear, so much so they consider it their absolute priority. At the expense of Enigma, their future restaurant in Barcelona, the fifth in the series: it will inherit part of the 41° Experience “format”, which was closed to get more space for Tickets, another huge success with its delicious creative tapas. Enigma will include coctelería 41 Grados and restaurant Experience (as similar as it gets to the El Bulli experience, with one tasting menu only for 200 euros for 16 lucky ones) and will open in calle Entenza, 100 metres from Tickets and 50 from Hoja Santa, the Adrià’s Mexican restaurant, the latest opening together with twin-brother El Niño Viejo.

Yet the attention of the golden big brothers of fine dining is now entirely concentrated on Ibiza. «As for Enigma, there have been a few set backs in the initial phases which caused a delay in the general calendar, so we risked overlapping its opening with the launching of the project in Ibiza – Sílvia Fernández, who’s in charge communication for the Adrià (besides being Albert’s partner) confirms – Since both projects are big and complex, we decided to postpone Enigma to 2016. We’re considering all options and we are still not sure of the precise date».

These uncertainties do not affect the other establishments in the Bcn5.0. group which the Adrià brothers run together with Juan Carlos, Borja and Pedro Iglesias, of the great marisqueria Rías de Galicia. Tickets, first of all, born in 2011: the author of this piece enjoyed a memorable culinary experience there. Then Bodega 1900, a vermouth bar where one can taste the best products in Iberia; Pakta, the nikkei cuisine restaurant, another dinner of the highest level. And finally the last-born Hoja Santa and Niño Viejo, the first with Mexican fine dining, the other more informal, all under the hat of chef Paco Méndez: they didn’t convince us at all.

One basic note remains, referring to the Adrià’s new activities: the recent openings (the Mexicans, Ibiza, Enigma) put a high quality expensive offer with another one, within the reach of the great public, side by side. A choice Albert Adrià frankly explains: «In order to have a place offering excellence, you need to have another one making the money». 

(1, to be continued)