A tragic November for the Roca brothers—Joan, Josep and Jordi—, owners of El Celler de Can Roca. When they were still trying to move on from the fire that destroyed Mas Marroch, the Vilablareix event space, at dawn on November 4, a new fire alerted the family again yesterday morning. This time at the Normal restaurant, located in the Plaza de l’Oli, in the Barri Vell of Girona. The Generalitat firefighters received the alarm a few minutes after midnight.
The fire affected the extractor hood, the fireplace and nearby materials. Eli Nolla, chef and director of the restaurant, explains that “this Thursday was a slow day and it was already closed at midnight”. It was the owner of Murmur, the nearby wine bar, who saw the flames in Normal’s kitchen and called the emergency number.
“They told us around 00:30 and we couldn’t believe it. Luckily there was no one in the restaurant, so there are no victims to report, although the neighbors on the upper floors had to evacuate,” Josep Roca said by telephone. “The kitchen, warehouse and water main are affected, but the fire did not spread to the dining room. The adjacent rooms are affected.” Another night of suspense, even if this fire – in premises open in the midst of the pandemic, in the summer of 2021 – did not present the voracity of that of Mas Marroch.
The image that Josep Roca shared on social media that night was overwhelming: the flames devoured the imposing dome, the work of architect Oriol Roselló, specialized in sustainable architecture and designed in dry stone and wood. “We haven’t gone through the pain of the first fire and we already have another one. We feel helplessness, sadness, perplexity”, says the sommelier, accompanied this time too by his wife Encarna Tirado, in charge of managing the Mas Marroch events. His son Martí Roca, chef at Celler de Can Roca, was also present; Eli Nolla, director of Normal; and Gemma Barceló, general director of the group.
“Now is the time to move forward, accept what comes our way, overcome emotional grief, take care of reservations and open as soon as possible,” he adds. They know Normal will reopen in a few days, but Mas Marroch will take months. “It’s sealed and we can’t enter, even though we already have ideas to rebuild the agora with the same architect and an Italian artist. We want to recycle the burnt wood and extract all the artistic part of the place.”
A fire broke out at the Normal restaurant in Mitjanit. No pre-ache. Thanks to @bomberscat i Municipal Police of Girona. Lymph great the annoyance of the veins and the companies of the mur mur. Res greu which is not easy to solve. We will try to deliver as soon as possible. I set fire to the kitchen and soon after the destruction. pic.twitter.com/TTtaD6iNIm
— Josep Roca Fontané (@JosepPituRoca) November 21, 2025
Meanwhile, they are moving their contracted events to Esperit Roca, the Sant Julià de Ramis castle complex, which houses a distillery, a hotel, a Michelin-starred restaurant and another inspired by their family’s roots, bearing their mother’s surname, Fontané.
“We hope to recover normality very soon and to open the Normal as soon as possible. We must be effective and fast. And in Mas Marroch we will be more creative”, underlined this Friday Joan Roca, still perplexed by the situation they have been experiencing for a month. “We had never faced something like this. 10 years ago we had an accident in Can Roca, our parents’ restaurant, but we are not used to these vicissitudes.” “These experiences are hard,” concludes Josep Roca.
