Drolma opened the 1st of June of 1999. The Soldevila-Casals family, owners of Hotel Majestic, had already decided that the best and most stately location would be the main floor of the building, overlooking Passeig de Grącia.
In addition, this magnificent space had to become the setting for the development of solid culinary principles. With this aim in mind, Fermķ Puig, -a Chef trained in the line of traditional French cooking-, undertook his most vibrant challenge to date. His project was perfectly defined from the start and time has only consolidated it and proved it right. It was not an issue of creating traditional hotel cuisine, but rather of establishing a new kind of rapport between high independent gastronomy and the hotel. The idea prospered and what was at the time a pioneering concept is nowadays a referent for other hotels of the city. In any case, Drolma remains the model to follow.
Guests entering directly from Passeig de Grącia (a bright place like no other in Barcelona no matter what the weather is like) pass through the hall of this historical establishment towards the staircase that leads to the restaurant and are welcomed in a space that makes them feel as if they were in an exclusive British Club or Gastronomic Society of great privacy and discretion.
Drolma has its own rules and they are applied without exceptions. They have been given form by the Chef in close contact with clients who are accustomed to the highest culinary standards. They are expressed and ritualised in compartmentalised areas that allow the highest level of service. The final result is the refined atmosphere of a superb restaurant.
Since the restaurant opened nine years ago, much has happened to public restaurants at large but, Drolma has persevered on the idea expressed on the menu of those early days: a cuisine with little inclination towards great adventures and experimentation and set on certainty, the interpretation of recipes already consolidated and the combination of flavours intelligible to Occidental palates.
Baby squid and tender sweet peas are an example of what is offered depending on the season and the regional essence. When leaves fall, clients look forward to the dishes based on game, fowl, white or black truffles or the poularde demideuil. By the time the trees of Passeig de Grącia are covered in leaves again, they get ready for the arrival of fresh vegetables, wild mushrooms, fish, shellfish and the famous Cap de Creus lobster caldereta.
Far from the vulgarity and strident cries found elsewhere, the cuisine of Drolma is well balanced and cultivated: reminiscent of the soft sunbeams that rest on tables after a meal. |
