Last June it opened its doors Indian Village , a new way of inhabiting the Valencian orchard. He did it next to the tracks of the metro stop Bujasot , a town adjoining Valencia that can boast of having a big city as a neighbor, but its streets still breathe a calmer atmosphere.
The best? As is the case with paternal, Godella either Alboraya, forms part of that network of enclaves belonging to l'Horta Nord , that great natural jewel where the past arrives in the form of our present.
The closure of Convent Carmen , in March 2020, was the great trigger for Villa Indiano to become a reality. It has cost a little more than expected, but the illusions of that work team that created a project never seen before in the city of Turia, and its community, both physical and virtual (with more than 20,000 users on Instagram at the time these lines are written), are more alive than ever.
More than 2500m2 where you can share, live together, learn, enjoy, disconnect and -how not- to taste the traditional Mediterranean gastronomy. Here is the perfect plan for those summer days that we wish would never end. Did we discover this space that promises to become the must of the season?
The Villa Indiano house.
WHEN A DOOR CLOSES, DOES A WINDOW OPEN?
This time, it is more of a window. Seventeen months after its opening, the project Convent Carmen , which has not stopped reaping wonderful reviews and positive impacts on different scales, has been involved in an administrative closure until further notice. It was at the beginning of March 2020, about two weeks before the world came to a standstill and the words 'pandemic', 'lockdown' and 'coronavirus' became part of our daily lives.
“What was seen of Convent Carmen was only the tip of the iceberg . It was not a garden where to drink beers and that's it, it is a much more ambitious project that is divided into several phases and we could only enjoy the first one. Our purpose was to create a 'contextual' hotel that reversed the conventional paradigm in the Convent of San José and Santa Teresa (Discalced Carmelites); But before getting to that, we had to create an ecosystem for the city that would project the identity of the people who live here and generate an exchange with the tourists who visit it. The first phase is the one that became a reality, the placement of the rooms has not yet been able to see the light due to the administrative closure, ”the general director of the company that includes Villa Indiano and Convent Carmen, Juanma Sánchez, tells Condé Nast Traveler. .
"Having said that, the project is far from over . We have presented the corresponding license and we have been waiting for two years for the Valencia City Council to answer us. We have to begin to understand the proposals that are designed to make a difference and Convent Carmen, as is the case with Villa Indiano, is one of them”, she adds.
It was with its closure that the business group, which also has expensive hotel wave Serena Tower of Benifaraig , began to revisit the different options of spaces where to build a concept similar to that of Valencia, but moving away a little from the city with the intention of relocating. That is when the Villa del Indiano came to mind.
The Valencian orchard.
“We arrived here in June 2020, we were looking for a place similar in scale to Convent Carmen but outside of Valencia, and what initially went unnoticed by us, in the end completely conquered us. It was a bourgeois town , an old residence that has approximately a century behind it with an uncertain origin that we hope to clarify with time. It is a chalet belonging to a person who made a fortune, we believe that in Venezuela, that when he returned, this house was built. Our idea is to carry out a research project in this regard to recover the memory of the building and be able to make it known to all the people who visit us”, says Juanma Sánchez.
This is how Villa Indiano was born, two years after the first contact. The bureaucratic issues made it necessary for more time than expected and in the end it has managed to see the light at the beginning of this summer of 2022. And what light!
“We find this house that is of a very characteristic typology, with rooms on both sides, where all the elements are original, from the hydraulic tile floors to the carpentry. The best thing is that it was in very good condition, which was a real luck ”, she adds.
The Villa Indiano letter.
THREE CONCEPTS IN A SINGLE SPACE
Villa Indiano is that project that seeks the open sky. And if it can be in the middle of the Valencian orchard where you can breathe the fresh air and with a 'ceiling' full of stars, all the better. “As soon as you walk through its doors, your heart rate drops. Our intention is to generate projects that generate a mark , that transcend and produce that well-being”, says Juanma Sánchez.
And she adds: “We have always been in favor of relocation, and this new proposal was not going to be less. We advocate decentralization, give the opportunity to places that, although they are not in recurring transit areas, deserve to become real surprises that one does not expect . The time has come for Burjassot to stop being considered a dormitory town”.
Villa Indiano is a space for around 400 people whose interior design and design have been carried out by Jordi Iranzo and Angela Montagud, from ClapStudio . Here gastronomy and leisure are combined in three different concepts: restaurant, gastronomic garden with socio-cultural programming and space for events.
The first is a traditional restaurant in Valencian food with rice, grills and lots of vegetable products , which is located inside the house where the original rooms of the building have been respected –parlor, menjador, rebedor, gallery, rebost–, and requires prior reservation. Options like the roasted aubergine with smoked sardine , the tomato, spinach and almond salad, the green asparagus with Iberian juice and fried egg, the glazed skate with creamy cauliflower, the grilled duck leg with orange démi-glace or the asparagus and red mullet rice. Nothing like closing lunch or dinner with one of their desserts like roasted pumpkin fritter Y almond and honey ice cream or his cheesecake.
The Villa Indiano garden.
The garden area presents a more informal menu designed to share with dishes such as hummus with crudités , the patatas bravas, the cod croquettes, the grilled Iberian secret with chimichurri or the indian burger , one of the stars in space. If all goes according to plan, in the coming weeks a horchateria with related products such as fartons to accompany those summer afternoons that have only just begun.
Among the socio-cultural proposal, a host of initiatives that revolve around nine axes: gastronomy, dissemination, performing arts, well-being, vegetable garden, workshops, music, art/exhibitions and cinema. The latter still needs to be launched throughout the remainder of the summer. A cinema in the middle of an al fresco garden? Of course!
“We want to serve as a platform, to form a collaborative network where long-term exchanges take place. Things are always happening at Villa Indiano. And the events part works with closed menus and on demand. We are open to any type of suggestion, from birthdays, weddings, company meetings, training, etc. Villa Indiano can be closed, but it is designed so that both private events and the visit of the clientele can coexist in harmony”, indicates Juanma Sánchez.
A MODEL CASE THAT YOU WANT TO REPLICATE
With only a little over a month since its opening, it can already be predicted that at Villa Indiano they know how to make a difference. And this is only the beginning. In the words of Juanma Sánchez: “ We want this space to be a model case that we want to replicate . We are facing a new way of entering the Valencian orchard, respecting it and generating the least possible impact on it. Our purpose is to be a new way of understanding the garden for new generations, and that everyone appreciates this jewel that we have in Valencia . Generate awareness and contribute to its enhancement”.
Shall we drop by here as soon as the opportunity presents itself?
IN DATA
Address : Camí de l'Estació, 4, Burjassot (Valencia)
Schedule: Restaurant from Wednesday to Sunday 13:30-15:30 and 20:30-22:30/ Garden from Wednesday to Sunday 18:00-00:00/01:00
Average restaurant price: €30-35
Average garden price: €15-20