08/08/2020 - 7:01
- Clarín.com
- Cities
Every other day, Gabriel Pérez answers the phone and on the other end of the line he hears "Can I come in for coffee?" Regardless of the stage of quarantine, the question is repeated, although asked by different people. Those who consult are clients of Esquina Homero Manzi , a traditional café in the City of Buenos Aires, at the intersection of San Juan and Boedo avenues . They know the answer is no, but they take advantage of the call to remind Daniel not to lower his arms , some even offer him money to help him sustain the business .
“Big people are very attached to the bar. They are from the neighborhood. Many came as children accompanied by a grandfather or uncle. Others throughout their lives chose coffee, here they would start the day or meet , and they are not resigned to not continue doing it, ”says Daniel. Together with his father Eulogio and his brother Fernando they manage the space that is not only part of Boedo's identity, but also represents a Buenos Aires tourist attraction. But after the coronavirus infection, the world changed, successive extensions of quarantine arrived in the City, and today the prestigious cafe-restaurant is held in a fragile balance, within a context of the closure of bars and sangria in the gastronomic sector .
From Monday to Friday, Gabriel arrives at Esquina Homero Manzi between eight and nine in the morning, when the historical clients begin to approach to order a coffee. Since May 15, when they reopened after almost two months of closure, the sale modality is through delivery or take away . Three tables covered by red tablecloths, arranged in the front door, function as a stained glass window. There the croissant coffee is sold for $ 120 and daily menus are suggested: ravioli with stew for $ 450 or a plate of tripe for $ 390.
Behind the bar, Gabriel watches. See the man and woman who take their coffee in a styrofoam glass or listen to a menu reservation for midday or evening. For three months, he has known that it is an empty attempt at survival : "Delivery and take away represent between 3 and 4% of the previous turnover. It is not useful, it is not enough, but we do it to feel useful and maintain the bond with customers. Sometimes I stare and what I see is sad : the restaurant is empty, some tables piled up. I'm used to seeing it in motion, with the kitchen, the living room and the stage full of people working. "
The café-restaurant is 20 years old since the last major renovation. The bar was formally opened in 1925 although it is believed that it was already in operation by 1914. Photo: Rafael Mario Quinteros
Before, Homero Manzi employed 20 artists, including dancers, musicians and singers , in addition to a staff of 42 people, dedicated exclusively to the cafe and restaurant. Today the shows do not have a return date and the gastronomers take turns working. "In September the first installment of the loan that Nación offered for the payment of salaries at a fixed rate of 24% arrives," says Pérez. And he continues: "We value both that credit and the ATP, they represent a great help, but they are insufficient. The entire sector is asking for an emergency law . From one day to the next we find the company closed but facing the same responsibilities. they arrive are moratoriums, that nobody knows how they are going to pay them ".
Many times Gabriel is distraught and wonders what he did in the last 20 years. In those moments, try to locate the exact moment of the mistake. "I was 26 years old when I entered. I have a life dedicated to this corner . I got married and with my wife we bought our first apartment with this job. Also, I'm from San Lorenzo and all the titles are celebrated on the field and here," he is happy . But immediately he becomes silent, thinks and adds: "Sometimes I wonder if as a family we err in putting all our eggs in the same basket, but we bet on the restaurant, on making 'the' best, on giving work. Boedo is not in any tourist circuit and lung, without knowing of advertising and going out to look for the travel agencies, we managed to locate it as a reference ".
"Take away" mode. The traditional bar works delivering food and coffee to go. Photo: Rafael Mario Quinteros
The Pérez family arrived in Homero Manzi in September 2000, 20 years old next month. The reopening was with a coffee much larger than the original. By then, the bar had been going through periods of crisis for a long time, and the Perez family along with another family had bought it at the end of the nineties, but they had to wait for the owner of the goodwill to finalize his contract.
The reconstruction of the space was recreating the style of the cafes of the 40. Cedar wood on the walls and the bar, Carrara marble on the tables, and paintings by Hermenegildo Sábat. In the octave and above the entrance, there is the unmistakable face of Homero Manzi, portrayed by the great cartoonist and plastic artist.
The inauguration was without big parties because one of the owners had died seven days before. His name was Antonio Bermúdez. Today his daughter is a partner of Gabriel and his father Eulogio.
The administrators of the Café Homero Manzi, Eulogio Perez and his son Gabriel. They lead a life on that corner of San Juan and Boedo. Photo: Rafael Mario Quinteros
" My father continues to come every day. There is no way to make him understand that he does not have to go out, that he has to take care of himself because he is a risk person. He does it the same, he sits at the bar or at a table, and thinks." Eulogio is projecting all the time. He was the driving force behind delivery. Before the quarantine, in the Manzi there were none. Food delivery was not part of the business model. The experience was remarkable inside the bar , and the motorcycles arriving and leaving to fulfill orders could interfere with the sound of the tango shows that took place each night.
"This place is a dream that my father sought for many years. When he was young, he worked in a cafe in the area and walked to this corner to take the 166 to return to Valentín Alsina, where he lived," reconstructs Daniel. At the bus stop, Eulogio was dazzled by the movement of the bar, its customers, the mystique impossible to describe. He dreamed of buying it and now he is not going to let it escape: "I don't sleep, I go to bed and think about what to do," he tells others.
Tango Museum. At one of the tables in the old café, Homero Manzi wrote the tango Sur. Photo: Rafael Mario Quinteros
His father's commitment moves Gabriel. It also generates guilt: "My old man arrived at the age of eight by boat, he came from Galicia. He started as a boy. He was a milkman, with a cart and a horse he used to travel around Barracas . He has been in gastronomy for 50 years. It started, that in this business means transparency. We are work people. And now I find that, without doing anything wrong, I get hit by a blow that I didn't see coming or decided. "
During July and August, there were rumors of closure . "Closing is not our intention, in any way, but the reality is that we do not know how much longer we are going to endure. The entire sector needs real help." And he closes: "Now we are bad and we imagine being even worse. The most cruel thing is that we do not know when this ends, we do not yet have the perspective of saying: 'Well, the coronavirus and quarantine have passed, we are destroyed, but let's put everything to start. back'".
The coronavirus and the crisis do not know poetry
A cafe without its people. Gabriel Pérez is saddened when he looks at the empty room. He was used to seeing a place in constant motion. Photo: Rafael Mario Quinteros
The corner of San Juan and Boedo was made famous by Homero Manzi, an enormous poet from Santiago who settled between Pompeya and Boedo, singing about impossible loves and the fleeting nature of life. Popular lore says that in this cafe he wrote Sur. The bar began to bear his name in 1982. Before it had others: El aeroplano, Nipón, and Canadian.
The bar was formally inaugurated in 1925 although it is believed that it was already in operation in 1914, when the muleteers took the cows to the slaughterhouse through the nearby streets. Homero Manzi was a symbol of urban culture in the 1940s and is a notable café and Historic Protection Area . About that, Eulogio Perez says: "He has all the titles."
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