Karina Niebla
07/03/2020 - 7:00
- Clarín.com
- Cities
The empanadas from Mendoza, the meat to the dough, the scrapes, those cakes made of flour, fat, water and salt. Two decades ago, Liliana Moreno brought those flavors from her Cuyo land directly to Boedo. Seven years later he added a theater room to his restaurant . But the coronavirus pandemic came to take everything, including one of the neighborhood's most beloved stops. At 67 years old, in order not to close, its owner changed course and landed in a new category: agroecological fruit and vegetable market , breads and organic warehouse products.
In the same space where they knew how to parade dishes and very close to where there were shows, today Bread and Art Sovereign Food works , in Boedo at 800. Now the theater platforms are supported by baskets of theatrical scenery. The same ones that today overflow with kiwis, chili peppers, carrots, even with their plumes. On the sides of the market are wines, breads, eggs, organic grass, muscabo sugar, Himalayan salt. The grandmother's old cedar counter brought by Liliana from Mendoza completes the picture, along with a new bookshelf and refrigerators that have changed places. Voilà.
“In recent years it has been very difficult to sustain the place because of the rates. Later, the pandemic forced us to close and left us perplexed because we did not know what to do, ”says Liliana. I had never delivered and developing it in the middle of a quarantine seemed like a mess to me. The feeling was that this was no longer working , that I was going to have to sell something else. ”
The winds of change came with a much greater one than adding delivery. And they left their children, Germinal (47) and Paloma (28) Marín. He contacted vegetable producers in La Plata and, together with one of them, convinced Liliana about the direction to follow. Paloma started the social networks and today she sells orders for Instagram and assembles bags of vegetables whose delivery she coordinates via WhatsApp. Seven of the fifteen employees that the restaurant had were able to join the new venture. The founder today is behind the scenes, even if she is an actress: she is in charge of purchasing and management, and only comes out for these photos with Clarín . "It's just that I'm at risk age," she recalls.
In the last days, Liliana added another function. Or he went back to the place he didn't want to leave: the kitchen . “The neighbors started asking for the food they knew. The dishes I prepare are very much from home: lentil stew, chicken with potatoes, or Portuguese style. I also make homemade dough pizzas ”, he details. Paloma, the most innovative of the trio, goes even further: she proposes selling frozen food and offering a menu for the whole week.
Mauricio Passadore (57) is a neighbor of Pan y Arte and has frequented it since its inception, first as a diner and then as a supplier of regional products. “When you go to a big restaurant in Capital, in general you don't identify the owners. Instead here you always feel the presence of the family in the place. It is very magical and very important for the neighborhood ”, he highlights. Today it was its supplier again, but this time for the market.
Liliana Moreno and her daughter Paloma turned Pan y Arte, their restaurant and theater, into a market to resist and not have to close due to the coronavirus. Photo: Fernando de Orden
Liliana is aware that there is still a long way for theaters and restaurants to receive people in the City again, that is why today she finds pleasure in the connection with the vegetables she sells. "I grew up in the field and my dad owned a farm with vineyards, artichokes and tomatoes," he recalls. You connect with vegetables and you know that you are offering noble products. We were in a pit of desolation. Now, for the first time, we feel joy again . ”
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