This Tuesday, the saleswomen at the San Nicolás oven, considered the oldest oven in Valencia, with a sad face distributed the last loaves of bread, the Valencian ones, the last cokes and some other of their spectacular apple pies that were still left in the counter. The workers talked among themselves, visibly distressed, wondering about their future jobs while receiving words of encouragement from regular customers. Without prior notice, a sign warned that “the oven would close tomorrow [today] for construction,” but no reopening date was written.
Ramón, the owner of this business since 2010, explained to La Vanguardia the impossibility of continuing with the business. “To continue, they demanded a whole series of renovations to the premises, such as changing the ceiling and the floor, which I, now 70 years old, cannot undertake,” he commented, visibly excited after a day in which the phone did not stop ringing.
Ramón insists that he complied with all hygienic regulations and proudly emphasizes that, after recovering a “sunken” business a dozen years ago, he had managed to have “lines to get in” every weekend. However, after several notices from the authorities demanding a series of improvements in the workshop to comply with the regulations, he has chosen to lower the blinds. The necessary investment would be around 15,000 or 20,000 euros.
The business maintains a date (1802) on the tiles of its façade about the hypothetical beginning of the business. However, the current owner clarifies that that year is when the tiles would be made. However, he says that there is documentation from 1704 of maps of the city of Valencia with the name of the Plaza del Horno de San Nicolás, the place where the establishment is still located, in the heart of the Carme neighborhood. For this reason, Ramón considers the beginning of the trade much older.
Now, Ramón explains, the requirements of the regulations prevent him from continuing with it – “the regulations must be complied with and in such an old premises [he is rented] it is difficult to undertake and pay for certain renovations” – so, after a series of notifications with deadlines has chosen to announce the end of the business.
His biggest concern is seeing how to help the six people who have worked with him all these years and who yesterday were visibly affected after hearing the news. He says that he needs a few days to think about it, that he has several alternatives in mind, and that he hopes that one way or another the story of the oldest oven in Valencia does not have such a sad ending.