The empanadas in the Argentinian colors which follow one another in Barcelona

BARCELONA.-Mariano Najles and Diego Rojas are from Tucumán, they live in Barcelona and, without experience in the gastronomic world, they began to make empanadas six years ago. Today, they have a chain of 10 stores spread all over the city. Unique in Europe, dedicated exclusively to Argentine empanadas. They are the owners of Las Muns.

What is behind this brand that has conquered Spanish palaces?

The story begins in 2011, with a meeting of friends at a barbecue in Barcelona. Always someone new comes. It was Diego, who was with his wife, a friend of Mariano's wife. Spontaneously, Mariano tells us the beginning of Las Muns from his office in Poblenou. This is his first note with Argentine media. "At the barbecue where I met Diego, he told me that he was a lawyer, that he knew that he was not going to work on it and that he was not going to work on it. He wanted to make empanadas, and I said to him: with the empanadas, you will melt in two days "says Mariano laughing. He likes to relive this anecdote. The arguments left him. "I have a shop where every two days an unemployed Argentinian arrives and offers empanadas to me.The ones they make are ugly, the ones who are good here do not know the product and confuse it with empanadilla, they go to buy only the Argentines, and the Argentines in the end, they love another, because the Salteño likes Salta and Tucuman, it will be very difficult for you to do well, "he said. declared at the time.

Success did not come overnight because Diego's empanadas were irresistible. The road was complicated and time consuming. Mariano, current CEO and corporate strategist, had moved to Barcelona in 2005. His wife, a doctor, came to settle and, although a psychologist, he decided to apply for a Master in Business Administration, leaving thus his position in human resources. from Petrobras. They came to live well, comfortably and found themselves studying for a year, without pay, living on savings and what they could. Once he finished, he got a job at the same business school and devoted himself to the business case for the students, which left him on his pbadage. During the master's degree, the entrepreneurial bite took off, even though he admits that he always had, at the age of 8, a kiosk had been mounted on the door of his House. "We are the Argentineans we undertake the most in Spain, after the Spanish," he observed with the Global Entrepreneurship Monitor (GEM), which badyzes companies from all European countries. As Argentines, we see many opportunities in Spain. we think we understand them well, but we have a prejudice of proximity, but in reality, Europe and in particular Spain are quite distant in terms of culture with certain things of Argentina ".

When Diego met Mariano, he already had his first business. Manjares, an ethnic shop with Argentine butcher shop opened in 2009 in the district of Gràcia, was intended for immigration. A company opened at the wrong time, as immigrants began to return home, in crisis, as Latin America was rising. "The roasts they bought were for goodbyes, I worked 14 hours a day, because I could not hire an employee, and I wondered if I had done well, because I had an MBA, I had worked in Petrobras and I was going to a good shop, a warehouse. "

It was in Manjares that Mariano began selling the empanadas that Diego had brought him, once they started doing things right. "He prepared the typical Tucuman recipe for cut meat at home: Diego had a six-month course in a school of gastronomy in Tucumán and two months in a restaurant where they prepare empanadas, very typical. 200 empanadas a month, "he recalls.

The revelation

While Diego shared his ideas and tried new flavors of empanadas, Mariano still did not see the future of his business. I have aspired to do something big. Until the day Diego arrived with a new idea: he proposed to create colorful empanadas. "For me, it was the moment eureka, the moment to think that empanada was an ideal container to put what we wanted, I remember that we had a wine and I said we could put a green a red, a black and different recipes.When this fan was opened, I saw that there was a product, I had a lot of training in research, I saw that the appetizers grew in the whole world, that the deliveries began to develop and that it is a world tendency, that people look for healthy food, real, with a good raw material, everything corresponds to the empanada ".

In 2012, they set up a business plan. They bought an industrial freezer, an oven and a used motorcycle. Diego had a big kitchen at home. Mariano pulled out his contact book and started calling everyone to try them out. They sent their free boxes of empanadas to the public in exchange for a response to an inquiry. Thus, they received comments on the product, packaging, taste, whether they fell light or heavy. At the end of 2012, they were selling between 3,000 and 5,000 euros a month, to friends of friends. Diego cooked them and delivered them. It was the orchestra man. Mariano was in charge of the administration and was still in Manjares. Carlos, an Argentine partner who supported them from the beginning, decided to support them for the opening of a store. And they also asked for a loan at the bank.

In 2013, they opened the first site in the technological zone @ 22 of Poblenou. In the first three months, they sold less than Diego cooking at home. "We did not know anything about gastronomy, how to sell, how to present the product, we quickly started doing tastings with companies, we sent flyers to everyone in the area, we started with delivery, people started to know each other and started to rise, "he recalls. In 2015, they opened a 100% takeaway shop in El Raval. In 2016, a shop with a bar for guests of Plaza Urquinaona worked well from the first day. They had already learned. In 2017, they opened three new stores, at L Illale Diagonal, in Verdi Street, Gràcia and in Eixample. In 2018, they inaugurated four others. This year's expansion projects include Madrid and the cities of Catalonia, outside of Barcelona. They are already unstoppable.

The current price of Las Muns is between 2.50 and 3.50 euros. Its founders say that quality is what sets them apart. One of the values ​​of the maraca is to eat what she says about the empanada. "There is a difference with other empanadas, it's perfect.We use the best sirloin from Spain, which is Galician, Provolone and Italian muzzarela, fresh basil."

How did they adapt the taste to the local palate?

They listened to what the Spaniards wanted, attending the actual kitchen. The menu includes author recipes, such as Thai chicken, a cabernet sirloin steak, pork with beer; Among the clbadics of chicken curry, we find Italian caprese, caramelized onion, a taste of southern Europe, olive and mozzarella and the hard, well Mediterranean egg. In addition, a French mix, which includes spinach and emmental cheese. Of course, the meat remains 100% Tucuman. And yes, add spicy, is the best seller.