More than sixty years after opening their first bar in Poblenou, the Nuri family celebrated their trajectory with a commemorative dinner at the renovated Bar Nuri. The gathering brought together press and guests around a gastronomic proposal that condenses the group's history, highlighting Catalan culinary tradition, generational succession, and neighborhood identity.
It all began in 1962, when Nuria Calafell, ahead of her time, opened a small bar in Poblenou with her husband Jordi Noguera. There, amidst slow-cooked stews and inn-style cuisine, workers and neighbors found much more than just a place to eat.
Over the years, the project grew. With Ricard Noguera at the helm, the family expanded its gaze towards the sea, incorporating Mediterranean products as the central axis of its proposal. This leap materialized with the opening of Ca la Nuri, first in the Eixample and, later, on the seafront, in front of the Hospital del Mar, where they recently renewed their concession.
The group's evolution has continued with new openings that expand this gastronomic universe: Xiroi in 2016, Arrozal with a more contemporary vision, and Nuara, their venture in the Balcó Gastronòmic del Port Olímpic. A journey that consolidates an identity based on product, rice, and Mediterranean cuisine. Today, the family's establishments employ around 170 workers and serve more than a thousand rice dishes every weekend, figures that reflect the dimension achieved without losing its family character.
From memory to plate
The dinner served as an exercise in shared memory. During the meeting, Laura and David, third generation of the family, explained how they work from the area of marketing to keep the group's narrative alive and adapt it to new forms of communication without losing its essence."We want whoever comes here to understand where we come from," they explained during the tribute. That idea is directly transferred to the menu. The proposal of Bar Nuri gathers different stages of the family history through dishes that connect tradition and modernity.
Among the starters, elaborations such as the Russian salad with white shrimp tartare or the open omelet with cod kokotxas al pilpil, designed for sharing and extending the after-dinner conversation, stand out. Added to this are spoon dishes and "xup-xup" dishes like fricandó or roasted cannelloni, which directly refer to the cuisine of the beginnings. The rice dishes, the central axis of the group, maintain their prominence with proposals ranging from the creamy lamb rice to the surf and turf, reaffirming a specialization that has consolidated over decades.
One of the most significant moments of the evening came with the story of Ricard, who shared childhood memories linked to the family business with a contagious enthusiasm, reconstructing scenes that explain better than any speech what this project means.