Coffee grains worked into our tables. Ashes from our natural charcoal oven used to colour the wood. Raw clay formed by hand into the plates we use every day across our restaurants and coffee shops.
Just outside Barcelona, inside Hg Lab, we design and make many of the objects that shape life inside Hg. Furniture, ceramics, textures and small details built from natural materials, Mediterranean influences and skilled craftsmanship. Because food and design have always felt connected to us.
Hg Lab is our 600m² creative workshop where artisans, ceramic makers and craftspeople spend their days turning ideas into physical objects.
Coffee grounds find their way into our tables. Ashes from our natural charcoal oven are used to colour the wood. Reclaimed wood, stone and raw clay are chosen for what they bring to a space, not simply how they look.
Because every piece is shaped by hand, no two are exactly alike.
We have always paid attention to the things people touch without necessarily noticing. The table they sit at. The plate in front of them. The texture of a surface that slowly changes over time.
That is why so much of what lives inside our restaurants and coffee shops is created in house. Tables, ceramics, lighting details and finishes developed alongside people who understand how a space should feel, not just how it should look.
We are drawn to materials that age naturally. Pieces that pick up stories over the years. Handmade objects tend to keep a little evidence of the person who made them. No two tables are quite the same. Neither are the ceramic plates.
That feels more interesting to us than perfection.
A restaurant rarely feels the same at nine in the morning as it does at nine in the evening.
Morning light moves differently across wood and stone. The smell of specialty coffee settles into the room. Later on, softer lighting and handmade candles shift the atmosphere without making a fuss about it.
Small details, perhaps. But they tend to shape how people spend their time.
A healthy breakfast, a healthy brunch, lunch with friends or a quiet coffee can all feel slightly different depending on the space around them. The food matters. So does everything supporting it.
The approach we take to design is not very different from the way we approach our menu.
Natural materials. Skilled people. Time spent getting things right. Hg Lab gives us the freedom to work that way. Thoughtfully. Patiently. One object at a time.
Because creating places people genuinely enjoy spending time in has never been only about what arrives on the plate.