Jordi Roca gets go ahead to build Girona chocolate factory

Catalonia’s northern city of Girona is to get a venue dedicated to the world of chocolate. Girona city council has given the green light for work to begin on Casa Cacao, a project of Jordi Roca, the award-winning pastry chef at the world famous Celler de Can Roca restaurant. The youngest of the three Roca brothers aims to build the venue in a building in Catalunya square, which will include a bakery visible from the street, a tasting room and a shop. The upper floors of the building will be occupied by a boutique hotel with 15 rooms.

Casa Cacao, which Jordi describes as a personal dream and which he is developing with his mentor, chef Damian Allsop, is due to open at the beginning of next year and will require an investment of more than 1.8 million euros. The new venue, which will be built in a building that once housed a hostel and a clinic, will join the Roca brothers’ Michelin starred restaurant and the Rocambolesc ice cream shop that Jordi opened six years ago in the city center.   

Girona’s councilor in charge of urban development praised the Roca brothers for their commitment to the city, which he said has helped to spread Girona’s name all over the world. “They have never forgotten their origins, and they will now extend their activities to such an emblematic building as the one in Catalunya square, where they will create chocolate, which is a new business for the city,” he said, adding: “We are happy and proud.”