Buildings in the stylish and photogenic Plaza Daoíz and Velarde in Oviedo.
Only good and stylish things can be expected from a city where favors are appreciated with a bag of Muscovites, the almond, cream, sugar and wheat flour pastes that they have been making for more than 80 years at the Rialto confectionery (San Francisco, 12). Others, on the other hand, prefer to say thank you and show their affection with a tray of carbayones, that in addition to being the affectionate name with which the people of Oviedo are known are a sweet almond and egg yolk puff pastry that you will find at the counters of the historic Camilo de Blas confectionery (Jovellanos, 7).
Because, although it may seem that the city is only decked out for the Princess of Asturias Awards, the truth is that strolling any day of the week down the stately Calle de Uría and its adjacent ones (Gil de Jaz, Independencia, Doctor Casal, Covadonga…) you can instantly feel her taste for fashion and her love of accessories. This is well known to the Asturian designer Marcos Luengo, who found in the capital of the Principality the perfect showcase to publicize his prêt-à-couture and prêt-à-porter garments that are now on parade at the MBFW.
The best gift is always Muscovites.
STYLE IN FASHION
Accustomed to the quality of the fabrics, clients from Oviedo have long been looking for something more: Innovative and designer clothing with which to stand out and stand out from the rest. And when I say a long time ago, I mean 30 years ago, those that Pilar, owner of DRY (Marqués de Pidal, 17), has been betting on more artisanal Italian and Spanish brands. "We have special and different things, from Angel Peña bags made by hand to garments made with recycled products," explains the Spaniard.
In DRY they flee from the light and opt for unique combinations, and if you have to mix flowers with pictures, then they mix. An original way of dressing that, as its owner recalls, ends up creating addiction.
Also original are the headdresses and hats designed by Macarena Álvarez in her EMEA boutique (Cape Noval, 5). Macarena takes between a week and 15 days to make each piece: from shaped felt hats to jeweled or metal headdresses for special events. According to the designer, in Oviedo headbands are a trend: "easy to wear in daily life, and more so now that being a little more flashy is coming back."
Designs in the EMEA boutique, Oviedo.
STYLE AT THE TABLE
It is practically impossible to eat badly in Oviedo, where tapas, stew cuisine and typical dishes make up the menus of bars, cider houses and wine cellars. But the city not only lives (and drinks) from traditions, it is also sophisticated when it comes to foreign elaborations (although the product of the land is still the basis of the recipes).
Open secret (and from now on much more), at number 8 Manuel Pedregal street, is a fusion restaurant where you can eat some fajitas with crispy mole and pico de gallo or an octopus stew with tender earrings and yellow pepper than a foie mi-cuit with quince, chocolate and hazelnuts.
With a speakeasy atmosphere (and cocktail bar), this local crowned by hundreds of origami paper cranes on the ceiling is never far behind when it comes to gastronomic trends: they have created a line of gluten-free products, the home-delivery brand A Mano and, the latest of the latest, a home-delivered breakfast called Nothing Matters, of which they make an average of 500 shipments a week.
Open Secret restaurant bar, in Oviedo.
Sweeter, on the other hand, is the homemade confectionery at the Dos de Azúcar cafeteria, located at number 19 Fierro Street, next to the El Fontán market, which could not be prettier or more stylish (albeit nineteenth century).
Since 2013 Natalia Rodríguez and Dulce Gutiérrez, owners of this Bakery Café, have been preparing in their workshop (from which they also deliver to their other cafeteria in Avilés) cakes, cookies, biscuits, alfajores and any colorful sweet that you can imagine in such a perfect, delicate and stylish way that they almost seem fake.
But here everything is very real and "made at the moment", as Natalia explains, who together with her partner spent an entire year traveling to all kinds of countries to bring to the center of Oviedo the most stylish and creative ideas from the world of confectionery.
Their vegan options, such as almond and coconut cookies or carrot or orange cakes with chocolate chips, are increasingly in demand and their specialty coffee of supreme quality from Montecelio, an excuse to go and return again and again to try the best **blends from Brazil, Guatemala, Columbia... and soon the organic Iku, from Peru. **
Homemade biscuits from the Dos de Azúcar cafeteria in Oviedo.
STYLE IN BED
Although it may seem that luxury at the Castillo del Bosque de la Zoreda, just four kilometers from the center of Oviedo, resides inside its 25 rooms and suites (the castle's El Torreón suite has a private outdoor Jacuzzi protected by the battlements), the truth is that its greatest attraction lies in the surroundings and its gardens.
It was the Asturian-Cuban architect Manuel del Busto who was in charge of creating at the beginning of the last century -before leaving for Cuba to build the Asturian Center of Havana- this eclectic mansion in the middle of the forest, now converted into a five-star hotel surrounded by 23 hectares of pure nature in which to get lost
Exterior of La Zoreda Forest Castle, Oviedo.
STYLE ON THE STREET
unconditional is the love that Woody Allen professes to Oviedo: “A small city with a London climate that is a delight”, just as the actor, screenwriter and film director recalls it in his memoir About Nothing. a requited love, if we take into account that the city council of Oviedo installed a hyper-realistic sculpture on Milicias Nacionales street his made by the artist Vicente Menéndez Santarúa to thank him for the praise. A tribute, which the American perceived as grotesque and excessive, according to his words: "When they made a statue of me, I thought they were playing a practical joke on me, like in The Hunchback of Notre Dame." Who knows? Maybe a few Muscovites would have been enough.
Mafalda statue, by Pablo Irrgang, in Oviedo.
Although, if we had to order the people of Oviedo to elect his favorite sculptural work among the hundred that adorns the city, the safest thing is that they chose a female sculpture that stands out greatly from the rest. And we're not referring to the Regent in front of the Cathedral, no matter how much Clarín's character is the first that comes to mind when we think of Vetusta, but rather the little Mafalda that we will find sitting on a bench among the trees of the Campo de San Francisco park. Because although this year, after the death of the Argentine cartoonist Quino, we have all realized how important that girl with innocent ideas was for the world, in Oviedo it is something that has been present for a long time (the work of the Argentine artist Pablo Irrgangen was installed in 2014)... Let us remember that there is no city more idealistic, utopian and stylish than her.