The founders of Bar 44 open their first hotel in Cardiff

Owen's frequent trips, which amount to 120, he estimates, over the past 12 years, bring authenticity to their collection of tapas restaurants. He flies out to visit specialist producers and taste his way around the regions, looking for ideas to bring back to the menus of their growing number of Bar 44 restaurants, the first of which opened in an a derelict conservative club above a shop in the Welsh town of Cowbridge in 2002.

The Bar 44 family

Over the last 20 years, Owen, 42, Natalie, 49, and brother Tom, 48, have expanded their business to three Bar 44 sites in Cardiff, Penarth and Bristol. A second Cardiff site,Asador 44, offers guests a flame-grilled Spanish menu and there are exciting developments in the pipeline.

One such project is about to launch, a nine-room boutique hotel above Asador 44 on Cardiff's Quay Street, a stone's throw from the Millennium Stadium. After a behind-the-scenes peak upstairs a few weeks ahead of opening, Owen, who oversees food and beverage, and Natalie, who looks after HR and operations, sit down to share their story. Tom, who looks after finance, new business and property, is off scouting locations for further sites they hope to open this year and the next.

"We work really well together, we don't clash – only maybe over stupid things," says Natalie, turning to Owen, who adds: "Just bickering, really. We've always been quite close."

Natalie, the eldest of the three siblings, left Wales in 1991 to study hotel and catering management at the University of Surrey before moving to London, where she worked at Leith's Events and Parties, Roux's Fine Dining and caterer ISS, as well as winning an Acorn award in 1998. She returned home to Cowbridge after buying the Farthings restaurant on the high street in the early 2000s when Owen had just finished university and Tom's career in rugby was on hold due to an injury.

"It was at a family lunch when Nat suggested we set up in the market town of Cowbridge – it was an affluent area, but with not a lot going on, just old boys' boozers and one or two restaurants," says Owen. "We wanted to bring that element of fun; a place to meet people and eat and drink, and Spanish food wasn't really happening in the UK. We were lucky enough to get in at an early stage before the revolution of Spanish food and drink took off."

Viva la vida

Fast-forward 20 years and the group now employs more than 100 people and has no signs of slowing down. "I'm really proud," says Natalie, who left the Bar 44 business to pursue a freelance hospitality consultancy role in 2010, re-joining four years later as an equal shareholder.

Owen wholeheartedly agrees, saying: "Through Covid we managed to keep 99% of people; yes, some people left to change careers, but we managed to look after everyone and adapt and we've come out with two new concepts, we're still self-funded and we have no external investments."

For the financial year pre-Covid, the business saw turnover of £5.47m net VAT, before revenue dropped considerably when Covid restrictions were imposed. During the pandemic, the trio managed to keep the business running by quickly pivoting to an online food delivery model – Mercado 44 – which is still going strong, with plans to expand into a physical market site with a tapas bar as soon as they find an appropriate venue (see panel). But the business didn't come through the pandemic completely unscathed, saying goodbye to their first restaurant in Cowbridge when Wales' continued two-metre Covid rule rendered the small site untenable. "It was a really sad day the day we shut it," says Natalie. "But we're always looking for another site there."

The decision to find a replacement Cowbridge site before the end of the year is one, they say, that probably involves both head and heart, while aspirations for a second Bristol location in the city centre, with an accompanying Parador hotel upstairs with at least 12 rooms, is part of the expansion drive.

Natalie says the main driver behind it is the team. "It's been a killer with Covid," she says. "Everyone has been treading water for two years and there are people in the business who should have been promoted by now, but we have one less site. We don't want to lose those people to our competitors, so we have to expand to keep those people."

Opening Parador 44 in Cardiff

An additional 12 roles are being added to the team to manage the new Parador 44 hotel, which opened on 27 June. The hotel takes its name from the Spanish government-backed tourism scheme which opens up historic buildings like castles and monasteries. The Parador scheme them into luxury accommodation, the profits of which are used to preserve the buildings. Owen explains: "You can stay in the most amazing buildings and do a route around the country in Paradores – in Castile in the north they are big fortresses, while in Córdoba in the south they can be mosques with an Arab influence."

The hotel project has come together quickly. The Morgan siblings bought the Quay Street building they had been leasing for the Asador restaurant from beer company Brains for £675,000 in January 2022 and work started on the upstairs build the very next day. The project has taken 19 weeks to complete and will come in at under £1m, including fixtures and fittings. The building was once the Old Model Inn pub, which ties in nicely to the Parador ethos – indeed, the Morgans even secured a five-year interest-free loan from Cardiff Council to encourage tourism in the city centre. The group hopes the hotel opening will help the business get back to pre-Covid revenue, but with continued labour shortages meaning the restaurants are currently operating eight services compared to 14 pre-Covid, they expect surpassing 2019 figures could be a slow burn well into 2023.

Owen says that despite Cardiff being the capital of Wales, there is a lack of accommodation, especially boutique hotels. "All the nice places are in Monmouthshire, Pembrokeshire or the Brecon Beacons. And there tends to only be branded multinationals in the city, which are a bit vanilla," he says, hoping the hotel will follow in the footsteps of Cardiff's culinary renaissance seen in recent years, providing visitors with an original, luxurious accommodation option.

Parador 44 rooms will start £195 B&B, going up to £295 for a suite, with prices increasing on event days such as the Six Nations with a minimum two-night stay. A 10% discount is applied to upfront bookings and guests could snap up the smallest room midweek for as little as £150.

The group worked with Cardiff-based Design Management Partnership for the architecture and interiors and Westgate Builders for the build (see panel). "We put together designs and mood boards and even gave them photos from our phones from everywhere we've been," says Owen, Natalie chips in: "He's done a lot of research – he's drunk and eaten a lot!"

Tapas y Copas

Parador 44 encapsulates everything the Welsh siblings have tried to achieve over the past two decades – a strong hospitality business focused on Spanish cuisine, with Welsh influences dotted throughout. Think Welsh lamb shoulder sat next to Presa Iberica de bellota pork shoulder steak on the menu, or the Parador 44 rooms named after sherries – fino, solera, palmas, etc – which are hand-lettered onto Welsh slates hung in the hotel corridor.

Sourcing the very best produce from Spain has been key to making the business stand out, with products ranging from specialist wines, sherries and Spanish hams to Torta de Barros cheese from the tiny village of Villafranca de los Barros in Badajoz, Extremadura, where a family business hired an additional member of staff to meet the demand from Bar 44. "Delisting that off the menu would impact people's lives," says Natalie.

Brexit, unsurprisingly, has caused headaches for a business that imports so much from Europe – "Kent is basically a car park now," says Owen. "We have seasonal vegetables sitting in a container for four weeks going off." But the pragmatic trio are determined not to compromise on quality.

And, of course, F&B remains a focal point for the Bar 44 family as it opens the doors of its hotel. As well as homemade Welsh cakes – the raisins soaked in figgy Pedro Ximénez sherry – offered as a complimentary snack on arrival, Owen is taking breakfast very seriously, with head chef of Asador 44, Paul Bainbridge, overseeing a decadent full Spanish breakfast cooked over fire each morning.

"I don't know anywhere else in the UK doing it," says Owen. Guests can choose from a menu offering continental options such as the humble pan con tomate – bread with tomato, olive oil, garlic and salt – paired with jamón Ibérico de Bellota Puro, a classic Tarta de Santiago or a sweet pastry from Majorca called ensaïmada, as well as charcuterie and cheese cut to order. The fire-cooked breakfast will feature four types of pork – Welsh Black pork sausage, organic Castilla Leon chorizo, Welsh Black bacon and Morcilla Asturiana – as well as field mushroom, grilled tomato, Arlington egg con puntilla, and potato and caramelised onion hash brown. The menu will also offer the likes of baked Flamenco eggs topped with shoestring potatoes and Welsh black truffle, the classic Spanish dish of huevos rotos, salmon cured in Basque cider with scrambled Arlington eggs, or Welsh Black bacon and organic chorizo in coca bread with piquillo pepper ketchup.

"Once we're bedded in for residents, we will open it up for the public – because there's nowhere to go for a slap-up breakfast…" He's cut off by the ever-cautious Natalie: "But we need to test that as the kitchen is quite small," she interjects. "We don't want to over-push it, we need to make sure the kitchen can prep for lunch."

Owen continues like he hasn't heard. "… there are chain cafés and that's really it. There's nowhere to come for an incredible produce-led breakfast cooked over fire, with, dare I say it, in time, a piece of 10-year-old Galician Blonde beef aged for a minimum of 80 days with incredible eggs, potatoes, and for those who want to push the boat out, some Rio Frio organic caviar from Granada."

At this point, the hotel manager, Adam Jones – who before joining the group nine years ago as restaurant manager, ran F&B for Red Carnation's Hotel 41 in London – walks by. He stops in his tracks at the word ‘caviar' and ‘breakfast' in the same sentence. "He's the ideas man," Jones laughs, raising an eyebrow at Owen before heading back of house.

Looking at his sister, the Hispanophile shrugs. It's quite likely the caviar has already been sourced and is making its way over to the Welsh capital at this very moment.

Hotel design

Parador 44 snakes through the top two floors of the building on Quay Street, with low doorways some guests may have to duck through before the ceiling height opens up again inside the rooms – one of which is double vaulted, with a beautiful A-line truss discovered when ripping out for the build at the beginning of the year.

Some rooms have four posters, others have fireplaces, while bright white walls are softened by rattan-style soft furnishings, distressed tiles and framed travel prints from photographer Matt Inwood. Part of the Cardiff Council funding was to encourage carbon neutrality, so reclaimed wood has been used for several of the intricate headboards. The building's original floorboards have been repurposed into hand-rails and studded barn doors are now bathroom doors, behind which are luxurious rainforest showers.

The new private terrace is basked in sunshine – unusually for Wales – on the day of The Caterer's visit, when Natalie welcomes a delivery of olive trees – "I definitely haven't ordered enough," she says making a mental note to order more. A second flat roof which they intend to convert in the future, will provide space for a jacuzzi or perhaps a ‘potting shed' for spa treatments.

"We wanted to do a townhouse-type thing, where you can read a book and help yourself to a G&T from the library and sit on the terrace," says Natalie, imagining guests taking the short walk back to Parador 44 after a rugby match or concert at the stadium, helping themselves to a drink from the lounge honesty box and sitting on the deck, under the string of lights – they couldn't feel further away from drunken revellers queuing for chips on St Mary's street below.

Fine dining fiesta

Bar 44's ethos means it can take responsibility for some of South Wales' fine-dining success, as many chefs who have come through their kitchens have taken an appreciation for quality produce with them – notably Tommy Heaney, who appeared on series 13 of the Great British Menu and in 2018 opened his first solo restaurant Heaney's in Cardiff. MasterChef: The Professionals 2021 contestant Rhodri Davies who, until recently, was sous chef at the acclaimed Heathcock pub in Llandaff, also started his career there, as well as Leyli Homayoonfar, now the owner of Bab Haus, with sites in Barry and Caerphilly.

Future plans for Bar 44

Further expansion of the Bar 44 group sees the trio on the hunt for a 2,000-3,000 sq ft space to create a food market, with around 60 covers offering a casual tapas experience with bar stool seating, as well as a bakery selling fresh bread and pastries.

"It would be a much more informal market experience, with walk-up dining and guests could throw their napkins on the floor like you do in Spain," said Tom Morgan, the remaining third of the Bar 44 business, who is always on the look-out for new properties.

"Our online shop was born during lockdown and it's still going great guns, but it would be great to have a space for sending out these deliveries as part of a wider retail offering. We need to look carefully, because energy costs are a concern and there are fridge and freezer costs with a mercado, and the retail margins are a lot finer."

If the right property at the right price came on the market today, Tom says the siblings would jump on it, but finding an existing market site that would need refurbishing, rather than a empty shell, means these properties are few and far between. What could launch sooner is a city centre site in Bristol for another restaurant-hotel combo, as well as a replacement for their original site in Cowbridge, which they lost during the pandemic.

Owen is also desperate to launch a croqueteria, serving just drinks and croquets in a food hall-like environment in somewhere like Cardiff or Newport Market, which have both recently gone under significant redevelopment. And Tom is constantly viewing properties for all three opportunities.

Expanding Bar 44 into other cities is also firmly on their minds. "I went to uni in Exeter so I'd absolutely love to bring a Bar 44 there, and the Mumbles area in Swansea is incredible at the moment," muses Tom. Even London is a potential, "I like the idea of somewhere like Richmond, as it's the right side of the M4. But I remember Ottolenghi saying years ago the key thing for him, when he had something like five sites at the time, was he could get to every one in a single day. The good thing about Bar 44 is that there's three of us!"

A bit further afield is the idea of taking Bar 44 on the road to the Morgan family's beloved Spain. "One thing very much on the cards is 44 Tours, where we take a group of 10 or 15 people out to Spain for four or five days and visit these unbelievable places we get our produce from. And we could potentially look at buying a house out there to have it as a base."

The Bar 44 group

• Bar 44 Cowbridge (2002 – since closed)
• Bar 44 Penarth (opened 2012)
• Bar 44 Cardiff city centre (opened 2015)
• Asador 44 Cardiff city centre (opened 2017)
• Bar 44 Clifton, Bristol (opened 2018)
• Parador 44 Cardiff city centre (opened 2022)