Isern Serra Hides Speakeasy Bar Behind Barcelona Focacceria

Barcelona's Carrer Tuset 17 hides a speakeasy behind a working focacceria, and the only way in is through the refrigerator door. Designer Isern Serra created Focacha for hospitality group Grupo La Confitería, led by Lito Baldovinos and Enric Rebordosa. The venue pays programmatic and aesthetic homage to the city's 1960s and 1970s intellectual counterculture, the 'gauche divine,' and nightlife figure Oriol Regàs, founder of the historic Bocaccio club.

The storefront itself is a piece of vernacular culinary retail, designed by Pichy Glass. Past the operable refrigerator door, patrons enter an immersive two-zone lounge modeled after Verner Panton's 1968 Visiona installation.

What lies behind the refrigerator door?

Serra divides the interior into two distinct spatial volumes. The first is a bar room wrapped in continuous carpeting across the floor, walls, and ceiling — a monomaterial envelope that references Panton's landmark exhibition and doubles as an acoustic shell.

At the center sits a curved stainless-steel bar with rounded edge profiles that catch and redistribute ambient reflections. Seven distinct seating modules surround the counter, transitioning through a calibrated chromatic gradient from yellow to crimson and deep blue. Along the perimeter, curvilinear niches recessed into the upholstered walls hold back-bar bottle shelving and low-slung banquette seating.

Multi-Lite pendants by GUBI suspend directly overhead, lighting the metallic work surfaces and sharpening the contrast between the reflective steel counter and the dense, sound-dampening textile surfaces.

How does the DJ room shift the mood?

The second volume hosts the DJ room, which Serra frames as a Retro-Futuristic setting. A circular portal cuts through the carpeted wall plane, leading into the music and DJ lounge. Centered under an organic vaulted dome finished in smooth contours, the room explores Space Age aesthetics through fluid geometry and enveloping surfaces.

Scenographic lighting systems hide within circular ceiling apertures and perimeter wall openings. The light temperature and color spectrum shift dynamically in response to musical tempo.

Period-specific luminaires anchor the perimeter seating: Louis Poulsen Panthella floor lamps, &Tradition Flowerpot VP2 pendants, and Wire Stool VP11 units. A central Dana lamp by Tacchini acts as a sculptural focal point beneath the plaster canopy.

Serra's spatial concept pairs early Space Age modular design with contemporary nightlife programming — a lineage that runs from Panton's 1968 exhibition straight into a Barcelona basement bar. Photography is by Salva López.

Project information:

• Name: Focacha (@focacha.bcn)
• Designer: Isern Serra (@isernserra)
• Team leaders: Aasheen Mittal, Aran Escudero
• Graphics: Lo Siento Estudio
• Client: Grup Confiteria (@grupconfiteria)
• Location: Barcelona, Spain
• Photographer: Salva López (@salvalopez)