The Great History of Tapas Restaurant Grill Room – Bar Thonet

First Vermouth of Barcelona
In 1902 the place opens its doors with the name of Bar Torino; owned by an Italian businessman, Flaminio Mezzalama, with the intention of opening a vermouth bar in Barcelona. One of the first vermuterías of Barcelona, ​​and possibly of Spain, where to market the products of the Martini & Rossi house, mainly the vermouth of which Flaminio was its representative in the Iberian Peninsula. It thus became the first Vermouth in Barcelona, ​​being this drink at that time imported from very recently from Italy, and originally from Torino. Its owner chose the name of the bar, honoring its origin, his hometown, and the place where vermouth was created.

The great success of the Torino Bar led to the opening of a new store that same year 1902, which its owner also called Torino, in the Paseo de Gracia. The original Torino Bar on Calle Escudellers was popularly called the Petit Torino, or the First Torino. When the Torino Bar of Passeig de Gràcia closed in 1911, and after being closed until 1916, it is said that part of the façade was dismantled and moved to Carrer dels Escudellers, where after a refurbishment by Ricard de Capmany, the First Torino It was renamed the Grill Room.

Part of the history of Modernism in Barcelona

Today the only heir of the history of the two Bar Torino in Barcelona is this modernist place called Grill Room Bar Thonet, part of the history of Gaudí, Pere Falqués, Josep Puig i Cadafalch, and Ricard de Campmany as main and original decorator, as well as well as the famous industrialist, pioneer in design, furniture construction, and creator of wood bending techniques, Michael Thonet. All of them collaborated to create the history of the legendary Bar Torino in Barcelona. The bar in September 2018, under the ownership of renowned chef Albert Ventura and his partner Albert Taberner, manages to reinvent himself and in turn maintain much of the original decoration of the time. A symbol is the arcades on the door of the establishment where traditional glass and wood enclosures also stand out, and an interior decoration that retains its modernist character recognizable by its curvilinear shapes and wall ceramics. The new decoration of the restaurant accompanies the story and tries to reinterpret the tradition with a great bar where you can taste tapas of Mediterranean cuisine, and part of the culture and history of modernism in Barcelona through gastronomy.