The search for family conciliation is helping the fork esmorzar recover some ground when the brunch offer continues to expand with the rampage of an unstoppable potus. And it was that determination to have a life outside of work and be with his three children that led chef Oriol Aguilar to take the reins of the old restaurant and neighborhood bar that was Azul (Provença, 54). He did it by partnering with his partner, María Paz Siari, who contributed the interior design to the premises that reopened, bright, simple and cozy, last September.
The kids who come to have a snack in the afternoon (they open during the week and serve breakfast, meals with an affordable formula and extend until the exit of the two neighboring schools) do not imagine that this place once welcomed the most diverse clientele in the surroundings of La Modelo, which seven years ago stopped functioning as a prison after 113 years.
In the current Azul - not changing the name was the first tribute to the predecessors - the tiny kitchen is served by Francisco Sanz from Córdoba, proud of that tasty salmorejo or a well-marinated and well-fried dogfish. Meanwhile, Aguilar can have one foot in the room and another in the kitchen from which splendid croquettes also come out, ganxet beans with coastal squid or stews such as cap i pota or peus de porc that can also be ordered in the morning. , along with an assortment of hot and cold sandwiches.
If the Andalusian touch is Sanz's thing, the nods to Galicia are pure memory: there is the hand-cut lacón with cachelos or the Galician-style pig's ear, and from time to time an octopus dish, in honor of those in They once ran this corner that is once again a living part of the neighborhood and was founded by a Galician who had been widowed and settled in Esplugues in the 1950s. Then the Becerra family would come, for whom Fidel Amigo worked as a waiter, who would end up keeping the business with Charo, his wife. The couple worked tirelessly and when they returned to Galicia to enjoy retirement, Fidel's body couldn't stand it, perhaps unable to stop dead after so much trouble.
It was that hospitable Galician who, before the transfer, spoke to his successor about all the lives of that business that was frequented by residents of the neighborhood, relatives of the prisoners on visiting day, lawyers and their clients... “Por el Azul, he told me , they went from the Vaquilla to the Constitutional judges.” It is already known that everything happens around a prison. If not, recover the first episode of the extraordinary series “En su ink” by our dear colleague Domingo Marchena in La Vanguardia, where he tells the story of Lopecito, the prisoner who bought a tray, said “I'm going to get a coffee for the director ” (who knows if they imagined that he would go to the Azul to ask for it) and he left, “through the front door, like bullfighters in their best tasks.”
How many stories that Marchena knows how to tell like no one else should have happened on this corner where today you can breathe a welcoming atmosphere and that willingness to bet on sustainable restoration (because having life is sustainability). Oriol Aguilar trained at the Joviat school and cut his teeth in the trade at La Fonda de Món Sant Benet, in the kitchens of La Moritz (under the guidance of Jordi Vilà), serving banquets at Arts or on board a fascinating cruise where he tells that the true luxury was being able to stop at remote markets and buy the freshest product without suffering from scandals.
Now he is committed to a simple and close cuisine enlivened by a mix between his own background, that of Francisco Sanz from Córdoba and that of the much missed Fidel Amigo and other Galicians who went out of their way to serve a clientele that felt at home in the Azul . You can ask for little more than to be able to offer that same hospitality, cook well and buy the best product that allows you that other balance known as good value for money.
