rises in Barañain. It’s eight a.m. on a random Thursday and the Tilos Square the activity begins. On one of the porches, Angie Liseth Mutis Molina34 years old, places the high tables on the terrace La Bodeguilla, a restaurant that in recent years has won the favor of customers with his Homemade, fresh and varied cuisine at a good price. And above all, they surprised us with their delicious barrel roasts.
Liseth is from Colombia, like her partner Hugo FerneyZorrilla Botero26 years old, with whom he currently runs this Restaurant Barain. She arrived in Spain in 2004 and in 2019 she started working in La Bodeguillawhich was a family business at the time. At that time, he didn’t even imagine that he would end up running the bar.
After the coronavirus pandemic, La Bodeguilla suffered a decline due to confinement. And Liseth’s uncles began considering selling the restaurant. In the meantime, she had traveled to Colombia. “I met Hugo there and we only stayed 15 days, but he came to Spain with me,” she comments, looking at him with emotion.
Ferney also began to work at La Bodeguilla. “Hugo had his own business in Colombia and dreamed of starting a business in Spain,” Liseth recalls. He is a paramedic by profession and she is an administrator: “I also studied business management and the idea of one day being responsible for my own business caught my attention.”
Both admit to being believers: “We prayed to God and the Virgin to help us and to entrust us with a matter.” The response came sooner than expected. A few months after Ferney’s arrival in Spain, Liseth’s uncles informed the couple of their intention to leave the family. management of La Bodeguilla. They didn’t hesitate and decided to take the reins of the restaurant.
“We signed the transfer on October 1, 2022 and we opened on the 17th of the same year,” explains Fernay. Two years have passed since that day, a period during which La Bodeguilla has been transformed and became one again meeting point for Barañain residents and workers of the region.
“At the bar, we opted more for the traditional,” she explains. And still on the menu They want the food to be homemade, varied and fresh.
As it happens, the bar is packed at 8 a.m., which coincides with the opening of the bar. The bar has a wide variety of pinchos, sandwiches, tortillas and homemade fries. “We change the tortillas every day,” says Liseth. And he assures that there is one that is clearly the customers’ favorite: “They ask a lot for the one with goat cheese and caramelized onion.”
In The Bodeguilla of BarañainIn addition to traditional tortillas, there are many original flavors. For example, the one with blood sausage, brie and caramelized onions or the ribeye burger. “Often these flavors come from tests we do at breakfast. For example, one day we had a spare rib-eye burger and we added it to the tortilla. We gave it to a customer regular for her to try it and she really liked it, so we did it we kept doing it.
DAILY MENU FOR 14 EUROS IN BARAÑÁIN
One of Liseth and Ferney’s goals since they took the reins of Restaurant La Bodeguilla was to offer workers a daily menu with whom they feel eat like at home and varied.
Based on this principle, they prepare every day a economical menu of the day with three starters of your choice, three seconds of your choice, dessert, bread, drink and coffee. “We have many homemade desserts to choose from and we also vary them. For example, custard, pacharán mousse or tres leches cake,” Liseth illustrates.
The price of the daily menu is 14 euros and is also served the weekend at the same price. Furthermore, Liseth insists that always work with fresh products. “Every day after breakfast we think about what we are going to serve for lunch depending on the time and availability.”
This menu had a great acceptance in the city among neighbors, but especially among workers of the region. A few meters from the restaurant, the building that will house the Faculty of Health of the Public University of Navarra (UPNA) is under construction. “A lot of these workers come to eat every day,” says Liseth.
And he assures that also Many patients come from the Clínica Universidad de Navarra and the University Hospital of Navarra. “I’m very happy that they chose us because there are many other restaurants closer to hospitals,” he says.
The restaurant operates under reservation for meals, although, if it is possible to feed people without reservation, they accept diners.
Of course they designed a new system so that customers who have reserved have priority in the choice of dishes and don’t be left without being able to choose if any of them end. “At nine in the morning, I send by WhatsApp the options of the day’s menu to everyone who has a reservation to eat that day. This way they can choose now and have a reserved portion of the dish they want. This way, if they go to eat at 3 p.m., they don’t miss the dish they want and we are better organized,” she explains.
ROASTED IN BARRELS IN THE BARAÑÁIN CELLAR
THE roasted in the barrel of La Bodeguilla de Barañáin have become, without a doubt, the flagship product of this restaurant of the Pamplona Region. “We make them on Saturdays and holidays and they get a lot of attention,” says Liseth.
When Ferney arrived in Spain in April 2022, he immediately realized that he missed this way of cooking typical of his native country. “THE barrel roast They were invented by two young people from Antioquia, a region of Colombia, who really liked barbecue and wanted to improve it,” he explains.
Ferney was looking for places in Navarre where he could taste this type of grid and he did not find them. “I decided to make them myself,” he says. But he ran into the problem of finding the barrel. “I considered the possibility of bringing him from Colombiabut it was very expensive,” he laments. Finally, he found a Spanish supplier and got to work.
This is a surgical steel barrel. At the bottom, a charcoal grill is placed, which acts as a stove. With this system, the pieces of meat or fish They are hung on the interior wall of the barrel using hooks similar to those used in butchery.
THE barrel roast They have several advantages. First of all They make the meat very juicy. because it is cooked in whole pieces with its own juice. “Bacon, for example, is very crispy on the outside but retains its juiciness on the inside,” emphasizes Ferney.
Furthermore, it is a system of “environmentally friendly” cuisinesince it generates approximately 70% less smoke than a barbecue conventional. “So much so that it is even designed for use in apartments and houses without outdoor space,” he adds.
THE barrel roast You must request them upon request. “We close Saturday orders on Thursday. On the same day we order the product from our supplier. On Friday we season what is needed and on Saturday we cook it.” Liseth details the process.
The main barrel roast which are carried out in La Bodeguilla These are bacon, pork ribs and roast chicken. “We also prepare other cuts and fish depending on demand and availability,” he says. Roasts can be accompanied by a salad and fries.
He barrel roast chicken It is one of the most requested dishes La Bodeguilla. “It’s a chicken raised with corn that generally weighs between one and a half and one and a half kilos,” explains Liseth. They give the option of ordering only half a chicken, since they are large specimens: “Eight people have sometimes eaten a whole chicken, but it depends on each person’s appetite.” The price of the whole chicken is 20 euros.
In The Bodeguilla of Barañain You can also choose to order roasts and tortillas to take away. It is therefore a perfect option if you are organizing a family or friends reunion.
The owners of this restaurant thank every customer who bets on them. “We thank God and the Virgin for every coffee we serve.” And above all, they are very grateful to those regular customers and they go there every day. “Look at Mikel, he comes every day,” Liseth comments, pointing to the next table. In this film, a middle-aged man drinks his morning coffee. “And I won’t come on Sunday because it’s closed,” he comments as a smile appears on his face.
Today, they are looking to the future and already have a project in mind which, they hope, will see the light of day very soon. “We want to recover something that is lost and for that we would have to open La Bodeguilla also in the afternoon,” he says.
For the moment, this restaurantlocated at number 2 Avenida de Barañainopen Monday to Saturday from 8 a.m. to 4 p.m. This could change soon and would also lead to team expansion. “Now only Hugo and I work, but if we dare to open in the afternoon, we will have to hire at least one other person,” he explains.
For the moment, they are focusing their efforts on continuing to make their customers smile. “La Bodeguilla It’s like our baby. “We put all our work and enthusiasm into it,” promises Liseth. “Now I feel like a completely fulfilled woman.”
