Javier de las Muelas' speakeasy turns 25

It all started as a gathering of friends on Wednesday afternoons. Javier de las Muelas would meet in the Dry Martini warehouse with popular figures like Teresa Gimpera, Antonio Rúa, Núria Ribó, and Jordi Estadella to chat. They would start in the afternoon and could finish in the early hours of the morning. Naturally, during these endless and lively gatherings, they would get hungry, and they would improvise some fried eggs with potatoes on a small stove. Over time, De las Muelas decided to invest in a kitchen to prepare more elaborate dishes, and thus Speakeasy, the clandestine restaurant of the iconic Dry Martini cocktail bar in Barcelona, was born.

Javier de las Muelas assures that he was the inventor of this gastronomic concept, which was later replicated in other major international cities like London and New York. "Speakeasy is something very unique, it was the first clandestine restaurant in the world, where you had to access through a passageway with a password," recalls the businessman on the occasion of the establishment's 25th anniversary celebration.

"It's a place that has authenticity and credibility, because it's still the warehouse where Dry Martini bartenders go to restock bottles or go to the cold rooms," he explains with satisfaction. According to De las Muelas, the opening of Speakeasy aimed to pay homage to the venues of the Prohibition era in the United States, and it was also an attempt to innovate in the gastronomic sector and keep Barcelona at the forefront of creativity.

"We must consider the importance of bars. The bar is like a set, it has a social function, it is a space where many scenes of people's lives happen. The bar is the beginning of many love stories," claims the owner of establishments such as Dry Martini, Gimlet, Casa Fernández, and Montesquiu.

To commemorate the opening of the Speakeasy restaurant in late 1998, De la Muelas has introduced new dishes to the menu, with a clear commitment to strengthening the Italian cuisine offering. Not in vain, one of the executive's great passions is eating pasta. Thus, those who come to eat or dine at Speakeasy can now enjoy dishes such as carbonara spaguetti or cacio e pepe, creamy truffle risotto with ceps and foie, and straciatella carpaccio with smoked sardine. However, the new offering highlights the vitello tonnato, an authentic must that will undoubtedly make more than one want to return to the place.

Under the leadership of chef Iqbal Singh Prince, Speakeasy defines its gastronomic proposal as "eclectic", as one can choose from a fish ceviche from the market or a tuna tempura taco with wasabi emulsion, to a soupy rice with lobster, a Segovian suckling pig cooked at low temperature or a sautéed mushrooms with tender garlic. "It is an elevated menu that combines classicism, elegance and innovation," they highlight in the venue, characterized by its dim light and its large metal shelf full of bottles of all kinds of wines, spirits and alcohols. Evidently, any of the cocktails prepared at the Dry Martini can also be served in the clandestine bar.

Another Dry Martini opens in Madrid's Allard club

In parallel to the celebration of Speakeasy's 25th anniversary, the restless Javier de las Muelas is these weeks totally focused on the opening of the new Dry Martini in Madrid, located in the emblematic Club Allard, on Ferraz street, next to the renovated Plaza España. The establishment, which opened just two weeks ago, is on the same floor as the restaurant run by Martín Berasategui in the Spanish capital. Until a year ago, the Dry Martini in Madrid was located in the Hotel Fénix Gran Meliá, but had to close in November 2022 when the contract ended.

This year, De las Muelas also celebrates the 40th anniversary of the Gimlet on Santaló street. "This place has been my great contribution to the world of cocktails; it evokes a Barcelona that I would like to recover," he points out. Montesquiu, a neighborhood winery he bought in 1991 to maintain the city's hospitality tradition, also turns 70. De las Muelas, whose right-hand man is Gerard Acereda, manages about fifteen establishments in Spain and abroad, several of them located in large international luxury hotels.