The flower of Barracas. The centennial porteño bar determined to resist

While for many his end is nigh, the bar’s historic still life shows he’s ready to fight. At the corner of Suárez and Arcamendia, La Flor de Barracas has the distinction of never having closed in its 115 years of life. It opened as an inn and since then it was eating every day until it lowered its blinds when mandatory social quarantine was ordered by the Covid19. But The flower He was not intimidated by the turmoil of the pandemic and a few months later he did it again. This time with three of his employees at the helm, Sixto “Pupi” Portillo, his cook; Ramón Agüero, pasta master; and Gastón De Villa, kitchen assistant, all from the neighborhood, for whom La Flor has been their life for over a decade.

“Today, nearly forty people came, we have all separated them well, we have respected the protocols, and we keep everything very clean”, explains “Pupi” Portillo. “We open early in the morning, I arrive at five because a lot of truck drivers come, the teachers come, a lot of people from the offices in the region to have breakfast. We also bring coffee with invoices to the employees of the factories opposite, and many neighbors come, they are the ones who have helped us a lot by buying pasta and what we could sell during the quarantine, ”explains Portillo. As with the rest of the gastronomic sector, the period of isolation was difficult. “At first we were selling frozen pasta, the owner of La Flor, her friends and neighbors bought us to give us a hand. Then we started selling coffee with milk and croissants to take away, we set up a table outside and shipped, until the outdoor areas were activated and we could use the patio. Since we announced the return of La Flor, in May of last year, we haven’t stopped working“, He says.

Victoria Oyhanarte bought La Flor de Barracas in 2009 as an investment, the building included in addition to the old bar, a property on the top floor, later it also acquired the neighboring land. “It was very broken, but it was kept as a bar and had been open for over 100 years. It’s an old building, from the 1800s, upstairs there is a house with many rooms, it never stopped working as a bar and after I bought it I realized what this is meant because there were people coming their whole life. The I realized I can’t sell it and then we started to make it cute. We fell in love with La Flor, we made arrangements upstairs and downstairs also because we had the illusion of having a pension, ”says Oyhanarte.

“I never wanted to have a bar, but we were a great team. The letter was written by Ofelia, the life cook of mom’s house, who was like a mom to me. She made the menu which is the one that remains to this day and three of her recipes have come out in the Pietro Sorba Still Life Recipe Book which includes more than 45 dishes. Declared Notable Bar of the City of Buenos Aires, La Flor offers well-known flavors of good quality, homemade pasta, meats and typical Creole cuisine, in the best still life, where you eat like at home. “You eat spectacular, it’s food like mom’s, but with quality people love it”says Oyhanarte, who left the bar five years after its acquisition, when he rented it to the Cantini family, who took over its staff. Last May, five years later, the Cantinis left and laid off the employees. “They were going to be without work, without their life, which is La Flor, and I didn’t want the place to be empty either,” says Oyhanarte, who entrusted the management of La Flor to those who had worked there for a while. decade. “I thought it was the best. I lend them to them, they are not my employees, I have no profit, ”says Oyhanarte.

“When those who managed it left, the owner called me to take charge of my colleagues with whom we have been for ten years. She told us to work for her, that if we could, we would pay the taxes, otherwise she would help us, ”recalls“ Pupi ”Portillo who, together with her colleagues, created a cooperative to run the place. “Today we have a lot of people, people come from all over, thank God. Los viernes hay más trabajo y nos quedamos hasta las 12 de la noche, los sábados también suelen ser de corrido, y los domingos de 9 a 17. Nosotros abrimos siempre, todos los días del año, los feriados también, para el 24 y el December 25th”, account.

Although having gone through months of isolation and afloat, La Flor de Barracas is in a precarious situation. During the stage of running the bar, Oyhanarte decided to rent the property on the first floor, a house with many rooms, which were sublet and later, along with the neighboring land, were usurped. Today he is on trial for eviction along with those who illegally occupy it and this situation has a direct impact on the future of La Flor, since he wants to rent it again, but it is impossible for him to have illegal occupants. For the moment, he has decided to give it to him to manage his employees.

“When those who rented me the bar, the Cantini, left last May, a friend made me understand that if there was no one left at La Flor, in two seconds the people from above would come down and I would be left with nothing. to be an old building which, if not maintained, collapses. The idea of ​​Oyhanarte is to re-let La Flor on the condition of hiring its employees. “What we want the most is to have the above resolved, because the owner is looking to rent it out, but nobody wants it because it’s taken,” says Portillo.

“I was rewarded for highlighting La Flor and today I have no rights. La Flor is a historic site, the fact that this lack of rule of law is passing is a disaster because this bar is a symbol ”, assures Oyhanarte, who is waiting for a quick solution to his complaint to move forward. “I’m waiting for her to be healed, for justice to be done, once she’s done we’ll see what happens, I’ll come back to it.” If nothing thrives, the other is to shut it down permanently, which involves tearing it down.», He finishes.

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