Pablo Calvo
04/26/2020 - 19:02
- Clarín.com
- Gourmet
It is time to reinvent yourself. The quarantine due to the coronavirus pandemic left businesses and places of leisure without activity. And, Don Julio de Palermo, considered one of the 50 best restaurants in the world and one of the top in Argentina, spent these hours working in butcher mode .
While his main store on the corner of Guatemala and Gurruchaga remains with the blinds down, 60 meters away, in the place where he has his cold store, he began to dispatch his most requested cuts on Saturday: entrails, broad steak, sweetbreads and barbecue sausage, through delivery , like most businesses looking for these days to cope with the economy.
Premium cuts. For sale by delivery. (Photo The New York Times)
“In the Gurruchaga premises we mature the meats, the sausages, the cured meats. It is our laboratory , and from there we design our annual plans and our innovations, but hey, it 's now time for a change and so are the bikes to come out with two orders , "she told Clarin Pablo Jesús Rivero, owner and creator of Don July.
In the gale due to the winds that blow, Pablo feels a warm breeze, the memory of the butcher shop that his grandparents Valentino and, above all, Lola, the woman who put the local on his shoulder, attended to. "It is also time to think about the origins, to remember where one comes from and how to go on," reflects Rivero, one of the five sommeliers that Don Julio has.
He does not say it, because his business is also discretionary, but former American President Bill Clinton, German Chancellor Angela Merkel, former President of France Francois Hollande, actor Al Pacino, and singers Bono have passed through that grill. , Sabina and Serrat, among other celebrities.
Last year, on the list of The World's 50 Restaurants, Don Julio ranked 34th for quality. And now, due to the unexpectedness of the preventive closure of businesses and the social isolation extended from March 20 to May 10, at least, he decided to change to the heading of the sale of selected meats, to survive and maintain his staff.
The coals await. Until the quarantine ends and Don Julio can reopen.
“This new venture is for all of us to continue on the ship. It is team time, not individual saves, and we are 40 people in the living room and many others in the kitchen, so now we collaborate with the butcher and while we do training courses, English, food science and wine, to be better prepared for when we open again ”, Rivero emphasizes.
The list of available premium cuts, of steers of the Angus and Hereford breeds, fed to pastures, is already circulating on Instagram. Rivero highlights that he sells them at "possible prices": steer entrails ($ 870 per kilo), matambre ($ 610), entrecote (eye steak- $ 970), heart gizzard ($ 880), parked provoleta (170 grams, $ 150).
Pablo Jesús Rivero, the owner of Don Julio. (Maria Amasanti / The New York Times)
It also offers charcoal, fat bread, olive oil and coffee, to have everything at hand in a meal. "The time has come for us to be flexible, to put aside rigidity and become plastic, to wait for the new regulations on restaurants," Rivero said, regarding the possible new protocols that restaurants and places of entertainment when this happens.