Valamar opens Jadran Heritage Hotel and JAZ by Ana Roš restaurant: a new address of luxury and gastronomy on the Poreč waterfront
At the beginning of March, Poreč gained two new reasons to strengthen its position on the map of Croatian premium tourism: Jadran Heritage Hotel 5*, Valamar Collection, and the JAZ by Ana Roš restaurant, located on the ground floor of the renovated historic building right on the waterfront. This is a project through which one of the city’s most recognisable buildings has been returned to the everyday life of the city, but it is also a move that goes beyond the opening of yet another luxury hotel. With this step, Valamar combines heritage restoration, a small boutique format and high-end gastronomy, while Poreč gains a new venue that is not intended only for guests staying in the rooms, but also for the local community, city visitors and a market that is increasingly seeking a year-round destination experience.
According to official information from Valamar and the hotel website, Jadran Heritage Hotel opened as a five-star boutique property in the very heart of the old town centre, at Eugena Kumičića 3. The hotel is located in the building of the former Hotel Jadran from 1913, that is, in a property that carries strong symbolic value for the Poreč waterfront. In its renovated edition, this space is no longer just a reminder of an old tourism era, but a contemporary interpreted place for staying, meeting and enjoying gastronomy. In the context of Poreč, a city that has lived from tourism for decades, but is increasingly seeking higher added value and content beyond the peak season, this is a project that has both market and urban weight.
Restoration of the 1913 building as a blend of heritage and contemporary luxury
Official hotel descriptions state that Jadran was originally built in 1913 as an annex to the first hotel in Poreč, and the new edition draws on the legacy of early Adriatic tourism, especially the period in which Istria, Venice, the sea and the culture of travel shaped the identity of this part of the coast. It is precisely this historical layer that, according to available information, served as the foundation for today’s concept. Rather than reducing the building to a decorative backdrop, Valamar used it as a starting point for creating a small hotel with a strong character, in which architectural memory is combined with design, artistic details and a personalised stay experience.
The hotel has 12 exclusive designer rooms, and each of them is conceived as a separate story. This is not merely an aesthetic detail. At a time when a large part of the hotel industry is moving towards standardisation and repeatability, this approach clearly emphasises the individuality of the property. According to the presented concept, the rooms do not have classic numerical labels as their main identity point, but names and narratives inspired by the history of Poreč, its rhythm, the sea, promenades and the culture of leisure. Names such as Lungomare, Kartolina or Meer und Leben point to layers of local identity and the period in which travel, postcards and life by the sea held a special place in the everyday life of Mediterranean towns.
Such a model does not serve only the impression of exclusivity. It is also important for positioning the hotel in the increasingly competitive boutique accommodation segment, in which guests no longer seek only a quality bed and a view, but also a convincing story, local context and the feeling that they are staying in a space that has an authentic relationship with the city in which it is located. In that sense, Jadran Heritage Hotel is not trying to be a generic luxury product, but rather an interpretation of Poreč for guests who want the experience of a place, and not just an address by the sea.
JAZ by Ana Roš as a strong gastronomic signal for Poreč and Istria
An equally important part of the new project is the JAZ by Ana Roš restaurant, opened on the ground floor of the hotel and conceived as a space open to the street, the city and the daily rhythm of the waterfront. According to the official JAZ website, this is a concept that brings the “spirit of a three-Michelin-star kitchen” into a more relaxed, everyday format. In other words, this is not a classic fine dining venue with strict rules and a ceremonial distance from the audience, but so-called young dining, an approach that combines top quality, shared dishes, a more informal atmosphere and a menu aligned with different parts of the day.
This approach also contains the reason why the opening of JAZ is important for Poreč. Ana Roš is not a name entering the project only because of a marketing effect. She is a chef whose restaurant Hiša Franko still holds three Michelin stars and a Michelin Green Star, and the international gastronomic scene has for years recognised her as one of the most influential figures in European cuisine. The official pages of the Michelin Guide and Ana Roš herself confirm that Hiša Franko retained three stars in the 2025 guide, while Roš took second place at The Best Chef Awards 2025. Such a reputation gives additional weight to the fact that Poreč has received the second JAZ, and the first one outside Slovenia.
According to the presented restaurant concept, the emphasis is on local, seasonal and hyper-local ingredients, with a strong reliance on fish, seafood, producers, fishermen, foragers of wild herbs and small suppliers who are trusted. The official JAZ text very clearly describes the Adriatic as the restaurant’s “pantry”, while the dishes are based on the logic of sharing, spontaneity and a blend of local ingredients with global culinary influences. It is precisely this combination of locality and contemporaneity that has in recent years become one of the key criteria by which serious gastronomic projects are distinguished from mere tourist attractions.
Why the collaboration with Ana Roš is more than a prestigious name
Valamar announced its collaboration with Ana Roš earlier, and with the current opening it has now taken on an operational form. It is important to note that this move comes at a moment when Croatian and Istrian tourism are increasingly competing in the segment of higher-spending experience-based travel. In such an environment, the five-star category alone is no longer enough. What becomes decisive are the contents that give a property distinctiveness: a top restaurant, an authorial concept, a convincing connection with the location and the ability for the hotel to become a city meeting point, rather than a closed system reserved exclusively for guests with a wristband or key card.
That is precisely why JAZ by Ana Roš is an important element of the whole story. According to available descriptions, the restaurant is designed as the “living room of the city”, a place that follows the rhythm from breakfast to evening, rather than an isolated gastronomic salon. This broadens the audience: from hotel guests and local gastronomy lovers to visitors to Istria seeking a new address with an international signature, but without the formality that often accompanies the highest restaurant rank. For Poreč, this means an additional step towards the model of a city that does not live only from the sun-and-sea product, but also from gastronomy, short urban breaks, premium weekends and experiences outside July and August.
The story is given particular weight by the very geographical and culinary logic of the project. For years, Istria has been one of the strongest Croatian regions when it comes to combining tourism and gastronomy, with a developed scene of wines, olive oils, truffles, fish and meat restaurants, as well as a growing number of venues operating at a high level. In this landscape, Poreč now gains a new address that combines a local base and an international signature, and that is a formula that in tourism marketing has a significantly greater reach than the classic promotion of accommodation.
Valamar’s broader strategy: Poreč as a premium and year-round destination
The opening of Jadran Heritage Hotel is not happening in isolation. In recent years, Valamar has strongly communicated a strategy of investment in raising the quality of accommodation, developing premium products and strengthening the destinations in which it operates. In announcements about its business strategy through 2026 and the draft strategy through 2030, the company states major investments in Poreč, including projects in the Parenzana and Brulo clusters, as well as the continuation of product and brand development. This means that Jadran is not merely an individual investment in a smaller city hotel, but part of a broader picture in which Poreč should gain a stronger position in the upper market segment.
From the perspective of destination development, that approach is logical. Poreč is already an established tourist address, but precisely for that reason it must seek new motives for visits, different target groups and content that functions throughout a larger part of the year. A boutique hotel with a limited number of rooms, located in the old town centre, is especially attractive to guests seeking short stays, the experience of the city centre and personalised service. A restaurant with an internationally recognised chef signature further increases the likelihood that such guests will come to Poreč intentionally, for the experience itself, and not just in passing.
Official Istrian tourism websites also emphasise the rich gourmet offer of Poreč and Istria and present the opening of Jadran as news important for the destination. That is not unimportant. When the tourist board and a private investor interpret the same investment as a contribution to local identity and premium development, it is clear that the project has a greater ambition than the commercial effect of a single hotel alone. If it also succeeds in attracting a local audience, Jadran could become a rare example of a tourism product that simultaneously works for guests, the city and the destination’s image.
Small capacity, great symbolism
At first glance, 12 rooms is not a number that changes the overnight stay statistics in a city like Poreč. But such projects are not measured primarily by the number of beds, but by the kind of message they send to the market. Jadran Heritage Hotel conveys that premium development does not have to rely exclusively on large resorts, but also on carefully restored historical buildings in the urban fabric of the city. This changes the very logic of the tourism offer: instead of luxury being separated from the city, it becomes an integral part of it.
For the Poreč waterfront, this is additionally important because it is one of the visually and socially most sensitive spaces in the city. Restoring a building in such a position and turning it into an active, representative and publicly visible point means influencing the perception of the city centre itself as well. If the restaurant truly becomes a meeting place for the local audience and visitors, as the concept suggests, then the effect of the project will not be measured only by accommodation occupancy, but also by how much it has succeeded in bringing life back into a space that has both symbolic and everyday urban value.
What the new opening means for the Croatian gastronomic scene
The arrival of JAZ in Poreč also has broader gastronomic significance. In recent years, Croatia has recorded growing interest in restaurants that combine a local base, the ambition of high cuisine and a recognisable authorial signature, but such projects are still concentrated in a relatively narrow circle of destinations. With this opening, Poreč enters the conversation about cities that, in addition to traditional tourist strength, can also offer a restaurant with the international weight of the name at its entrance.
At the same time, JAZ is not conceived as a replica of Hiša Franko, but as a different format. This is important both for the audience and for the scene itself. Instead of an attempt to relocate a strictly elite model to Poreč, a space has been opened that should be more accessible in atmosphere, more flexible throughout the day and closer to the contemporary habits of guests. As a rule, such a model communicates more easily with the city, and in the long run it can also be more sustainable because it does not rely only on special occasions, but on constant traffic, local guests and multiple motives for coming.
All of this together explains why the opening of Jadran Heritage Hotel and the JAZ by Ana Roš restaurant cannot be reduced to just another piece of news from the hospitality and tourism calendar. This is a project that combines the restoration of a historic building, a premium hotel product, a contemporary gastronomic concept and a broader ambition to reinforce Poreč as a city where the sea, heritage and high gastronomy meet at the same address. At a time when destinations are finding it increasingly difficult to win attention with accommodation or location alone, it is precisely such projects that say the most about how new value is built in a tourist city.
Sources:- Valamar – official hotel website with a description of the concept, location and history of Jadran Heritage Hotel link
- Valamar – official restaurant page within the hotel with a description of JAZ by Ana Roš Poreč link
- JAZ by Ana Roš – official restaurant website with a description of the concept, address and kitchen philosophy link
- Ana Roš Group – official announcement about the expansion of the JAZ concept to Poreč as the first venture outside Slovenia link
- Michelin Guide – confirmation that Hiša Franko holds three Michelin stars in the 2025 guide link
- Hiša Franko – official announcement about retaining three Michelin stars and the Green Star in the 2025 guide link
- The Best Chef Awards – Ana Roš profile with international recognitions link
- Hiša Franko – official announcement that Ana Roš took second place at The Best Chef Awards 2025 link
- Istria Tourist Board – announcement about Jadran Heritage Hotel as a new five-star boutique hotel in Poreč link
- Valamar – announcement about the draft strategy through 2030 and investments focused on Poreč link
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