Top 50 Gastropubs: lessons learned from the world's top restaurant

Three Michelin-starred restaurant El Celler de Can Roca in Girona, Spain, with its reputation for boundary-pushing gastronomy, seems about as far away from the established British gastropub scene as humanly possible.

But for the switched-on operator, there are lessons to be learned from any business.

The Publican’s Morning Advertiser​ followed a group of operators — each of them representing a pub on the Estrella Damm Top 50 Gastropubs​ list — to Spain, to dine at the restaurant courtesy of the Spanish brewer and see what lessons they can take back home.

The night before travelling to El Celler de Can Roca, the group dine at El Nacional, a “multi space” restaurant with four dining areas, each focusing on a different area of traditional Spanish cuisine: charcoal grilled meats, griddled, baked and steamed fish, a taperia serving traditional small plates and a paradeta, the Spanish interpretation of a fast deli restaurant.

The restaurant was built inside the remnants of an old, sprawling garage and can seat approximately 600 covers. The group dines in the taperia, where sample dishes include meatballs with cuttlefish; tripe with chickpeas; acorn-fed Iberian shoulder ham; steamed rock mussels; patatas bravas — all traditional and rustic.

The main event​

El Celler de Can Roca is run by three brothers, Joan (head chef), Josep (sommelier) and Jordi (pastry chef) Roca and, situated in an ex-pansive, walled-off compound in a leafy suburb of Girona, produces food that — to the untrained eye — is nothing like gastropub fare.

But despite being a three-star Spanish restaurant, the Rocas’ attitude to seasonality, local produce and appreciation of terroir should strike a chord with gastropub operators, says chef-patron Matt Edmonds.

“The whole concept of what they do is based around it — using very local ingredients and keeping it quite traditional. There’s so much local and seasonal produce,” adds fellow chef-patron James MacKenzie. “They’re using St George’s mushrooms for instance (St George is the patron saint of Catalonia as well as England). It’s funny to see that — they draw so much on the local area and the selection of local wines really matches the food.

“You have the very traditional elements [on the menu], which are then totally modernised, and that is the way a lot of gastropubs operate — they take traditional, British pub grub and build on it, creating what we have — a mixture of fine dining and pub food.”

For instance, the Roca’s Iberian suckling pig dish takes a traditional Spanish staple and infuses it with smoky, Asian flavours and a molecular twist (the dish is served with peanut foam).

Elements of more traditional dishes — the likes of which were tried the previous night at Barcelona restaurant El Nacional — are present but ‘modernised’, as the operators put it.

In place of traditional rock mussels there is a single ‘escabeche’ mussel served as an amuse bouche and caramelised olive ice cream spheres are delivered to the table at the beginning of the meal in place of the real ones so commonly picked at in restaurants.

“It shows you how much it is important to be inspired by your surroundings,” says Edmonds. “We’re lucky in that you can go for walks in the Surrey hills and find things to eat or, if there’s enough, take things back to add them to the menu.”

But it’s not just the food and service on this trip that Edmonds has found inspiring. “You’ve got so many different venues from the Top 50 that are here and it’s really funny to hear the stories and the trials and tribulations that we all go through.”

“With front-of-house managers and GMs, it’s interesting to hear them and pick up information and tips that you can try because [as a chef] you face different types of issues.”

For Andrew Fishwick, owner of the Truscott Arms, it’s absolutely vital for pub operators to look beyond their traditional scope of influence for the sector to keep flourishing the way it has over recent years.

“In pubs, we need to be looking at what street food is doing, what pop-ups are doing, what fine dining is doing, what classical dining is doing and what places like [El Celler] are doing and taking it and adapting the bits that are relevant to our businesses,” he says.

“Obviously not all of it is — it would be silly to claim so — but there are so many, from the style of service to the décor to the food and especially the drinks matching, that you can learn from.”

For the whole group, the way wines are paired with different dishes at El Celler provides some surprises and inspiration.

“The whites were very European (Riesling, Savigny-lès-Beaune, Vigneti delle Dolomiti),” says Edmonds. “But the reds were from much closer to home (Ribera, Priorat, Penedés).”

Andrew Fishwick:​ owner of Maida Vale freehouse the Truscott Arms, currently a finalist for 2016’s BII Licensee of the Year (47th place in the Estrella Damm Top 50 Gastropubs)

Stosie Madi:​ chef-patron of the Parkers Arms, Newton-in-Bowland, Lancashire (48th)

James MacKenzie:​ chef-patron of the Michelin-starred Pipe & Glass Inn, South Dalton, East Yorkshire (2nd)

Michael Buurman:​ owner of the Empress, Hackney (32nd); the Dundee Arms, Bethnal Green; and the Crooked Billet, Clapton

Matthew Edmonds:​ chef-patron of the recently reopened Grantley Arms in Wonersh, Surrey, which was named One to Watch in Top 50 Gastropubs.

Melvyn Strange:​ general manager at the Kentish Hare, Bidborough, Kent, Newcomer of the Year winner in Top 50 Gastropubs.

Mike Stephenson:​ restaurant manager at the Michelin-starred Red Lion in East Chisenbury, Wiltshire (36th)

Rory Welch:​ sous chef at the Bridge Tavern, Newcastle (49th)