Ramon Otazu Larrauri will be eight years old Cali Bar, a historic place Pamplona which opened its doors in 1952. It closed its activity this Thursday, October 31, after 72 years of history in the Navarrese capital.
The Cali bar is located on Amaya street 18 of the second Ensanche. Very close to other establishments we have experienced in this section of local commerce.
Ramon is 66 years old and he is going to retire. There is no one to take on the gastronomic role: in an interview with Navarra.com he emphasized: “We stayed at Mikael’s bar for many years until it closed. When Mikael’s contract expired we came to this area. There was the possibility of renting Cali and we started here.”
“Our father (Juan Otazu Abete) was a hotelier, He passed away when we were 18 and we devoted ourselves entirely to the hospitality industry. We also have the Savoy bar on Bergamín Street, run by his brother Aitor Otazu Larrauri.
“I was born in Lerín, where my mother was from, but we lived in Pamplona all our lives. I want to retire, but you have to make sure that everything stays in order, that everything fits together. There is no family replacement,” said Ramón. The premises were purchased by a group of companies.
Their customers say goodbye to the house specialties “like grilled squid with pintxo, fried breaded shrimp and shrimp skewerscrambled shrimp on toast and melted cod with cheese and we gratin them.
“When we arrived, they told us everything about Cali, the customers, the parties they organized in Sanfermín with an orchestra. They closed the street, they had a parade with Juan Cruz Alli with the saxophone, the torico de fuego and the chupinazo. But now the years have passed, people are getting older and things are different,” said Ramón Otazu.
The annual capea, the mus championship, its small Sanferminero program with festivals, big heads, the charanga and the cycle race on foot. This is how the activity of a group of friends took place, whose meeting point was the Californian bar and whose only property was a small warehouse.
These activities tThey come from the registration in 1959 of a football team for the Boscos Trophy. With the birth of the track, they create another team for the new modality. The club’s greatest heights were two league championships and several runners-up finishes.
Without a fixed direction, they moved to these playing fields: Salesianos, San Juan de Dios, Villava, Barañáin, Mutilva and Lezkairu. Paco Glaría, Isidro, Esquisábel, Ruiz, Escribano and Glaría III were some of its most notable players.
As for the Chupinazo on July 6, they had the detail to launch it at 1 p.m. so as not to take away the importance of the original. In 1994, they had a budget of 300,000 pesetas per year, of which 200,000 were subsidized by the Pamplona City Hall, and the rest came from annual contributions of a thousand pesetas for each of their 90 members.
Among its party program, El Cali organized on July 8, 10, 12 and 14 four fire bulls, the charanga show ‘Los jubilosos’ formed by members of Cali and the kilikis. All these performances took place at nine o’clock in the evening on Amaya Street.
The cultural association In 1994, for the first time in its history, it had its own parade, composed by maestro Turrillas: “Those of Cali involved in the festivities / of the jota dance to the rhythm, with their courage they give to the party / joy, flavor and something more. If you want to enjoy your partner / you will be happy with us, and you will be forever have the memory / of certain holidays that you will not forget.”
