Harry's, Isabella Heseltine's new gastronomic proposal

[dropcap letter="I"]sabella Heseltine traveled many years ago from Rome to Barcelona to watch a football match and fell in love with a Barcelonian. "I am passionate about food. I was always cooking with my friends and they told me I should set something up. I started preparing dishes at home, delivering them, and in 2010 some friends gave me the opportunity to open Isabella's on Ganduxer street." This is how spontaneously Heseltine summarizes her first years in her adopted city. We met her on a hot September day in 2020. "Now I've been here longer than in Italy; thirty-four years." Business life smiles on her and she has formed a great team with her son Marco Garí. Working with him, she says, is the best thing that has happened to her: "Marco is 31 years old and is everywhere. I am the good cop and he is the bad cop."

We call Marco to clarify how family work is done. "I manage the entire group, I am the CEO and I handle expansion. My mother is the soul, she handles public relations and gets into the kitchen. I choose the new locations and each restaurant is an independent company." They started with Isabella's on Ganduxer street, then Bella's on Diagonal, and now Harry's in Passatge de la Concepció. "In 2018, when we opened Bella's, Harry Serra joined as a partner, who has the investment fund Salomon 1965 and who has also joined the Harry's project," Garí clarifies.

"We are very happy because Harry's is full at lunchtime and at night"

This new establishment has opened in the midst of a pandemic, a daring move considering the strong impact that Covid-19 is having on the hospitality sector. "We are very happy because Harry's is full at lunchtime and at night —Isabella celebrates—. We had to open it on March 13 and we had to delay it until September, but the opening has been fantastic." Full of vitality, the businesswoman does not deviate from the motto of her restaurants: deep respect for Italian food. "We had been looking for a location below Diagonal for some time and this opportunity arose. We hired Mónica Colominas and Patrizia Cassarini, from Estudio Dalla Polvere, for the decoration project, who have a very personal style and manage to create very cozy atmospheres," explains the group's founder. Isabella insists that each restaurant has its clientele and does not want them to compete with each other. "Harry's would be like going to a restaurant in Manhattan," she considers. Marco goes a little further and emphasizes "what we seek is for all our establishments to have something in common and, at the same time, for each one to be different: Harry's is aimed at the national public and tourists of a certain level. Fifty percent of the menu coincides with Isabella's and the other half are more premium dishes, such as an exquisite sea bass or an elephant ear; but we always start from market cuisine and a well-prepared product."The 'tagliata', the house's star dish If there is a star dish in Isabella's restaurants, that is thetagliataof veal. "I have a supplier I cannot reveal —he smiles—, but people come to my establishments and ask for thetagliata". The cut, the aroma released by the aromatic herbs, and the exact cooking point make it unique. The pasta offering is very varied: "We have truffle ravioli, pasta carbonara…". All products come from Italy: "we work with Spada pasta, Sapore d'Italia… and the mozzarella and burrata are also Italian. I am very clear about what I like and what I don't like. Nowadays it's very easy to place orders and they serve you very quickly," explains the group's alma mater. Rowing in times of CovidThe pandemic devastated the restaurant sector, but Isabella didn't let it get her down, and some days she herself, on her motorcycle, delivered the packages from thetakeawayfrom Isabella's, the only one of its restaurants that kept the kitchen open during the lockdown: "People were surprised, but I think it's what we had to do, take care of our client," he recounts. Covid also took the hotel boom with it. And it also caught them there. Grupo Isabella's has an apartment building that it named Isabella's House on March 1, 2020, and which, finally, reopened its doors on May 4 with considerable attendance given the tourist slump Barcelona is suffering. "We bought the building next to the Isabella's restaurant, which was already apartments, some of them with a terrace, and we have redecorated it in the purest vintage style. The bad luck was that as soon as we opened, we had to close," he laments. Isabella's House is an apartment model with hotel service. "We offer room service, such as cleaning or breakfast, and we encourage guests to eat or dine at the Isabella's restaurant right below them." The building is divided fifty percent for long-term clients, from one to twelve months, and the other half for clients who stay only two or three days. "The long-stay public can be, for example, a national client who is doing renovations in their house or who comes to Barcelona to do a master's degree or to keep company with a family member admitted to a clinic." The offer includes twenty-four apartments, each with two bedrooms, two bathrooms, kitchen, dining room and living room, and lots of light. The stars of the establishment are the two penthouses: one hundred meters each and a large terrace. Irresistible. "We can't complain because we have several occupied apartments and we are already receiving tourists. The first to arrive are French and, for example, those who are now doing thecheck outspeak in English; I don't know where they are from but they have spent several days here with their dog, who is very friendly. We aredog friendly", explains Isabella during the interview with The New Barcelona Post. Little by little, Isabella's spirit shines again... but there's more. The last two surprises are revealed by Marco Garí: "In November we will open a restaurant in Porto called Valentina's and we are already looking for a place in Madrid; we like them all to have people's names," he concludes.

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