Café Angélica, the great little cabinet of coffee
The Cantabrian brothers Light and Carlos Zamora They say that they created their restaurant group, Deluz & Co. , with a social vocation . A commitment that was not only soon imposed by betting on organic food and creating and being part of solidarity projects, but also tracking premises through the cities they wanted to preserve.
“I am always compassing through the cities, looking for those special city premises, so they don't get lost,” says Carlos Zamora. so they recovered the carmencita , the second oldest winery in Madrid, and they made it their first landing in the city. followed up with Celso and Manolo , the old Argüelles restaurant, which they renamed after their original owners. And now they've done it again Angelica Cafe.
Angélica was the name of the first shop specializing in the sale of herbs in Madrid . opened it in 1948 Francisco, a customs worker who saw a future for the business after checking it out in France. Last year they raised the rent and they had to close and rent the premises. That was when Luz and Carlos showed up. They saw it "in some advertisement on the Internet" and thought it was the ideal space for the project they had been thinking about for a long time: a coffee roaster.
They have preserved everything from the classic wooden furniture in which the boxes of herbs were placed, to the plaster, the floor. And so they also decided to add something to the initial concept. "It's a place like the old ones that existed in Paris, Vienna or Zurich, where dealers got together and sold spices, herbs, teas...", continues Zamora. At Café Angélica, in addition to coffee, you can also buy spices , “the best, ecological and certified fairtrade ”; and herbs, “from the Ebro Delta, ecological and air-dried that maintain more medicinal, taste and olfactory properties”, he explains. You can also take or take some of their 14 varieties of teas , “from India, Japan and China”.
Everything breathes the air of 1948, when the original herbalist was founded
But of course, coffee is king here. At Deluz & Cía they had been roasting their own coffee for seven years because they couldn't find one they liked and now they have placed "a the Rolls Royce of coffee roasters , a Petite German Probat ” that grinds five kilos at a time, in Angélica so that everyone can make the coffee they like best.
"We want people or other restaurants to come to make their own coffee, to roast their coffee green and prepare their own blend," says Zamora. “ We want people to come and expand their knowledge about coffee ”. Let it happen as it happened with wines in the last two decades, that people end up knowing where the coffee they like the most comes from, and know how to distinguish its flavours.
This is the German Probat where anyone can roast their coffee
And in Angélica they will have a few to learn. They will be constantly changing and adding, but to begin with they have five coffees from Africa (three from Ethiopia, Rwanda and Tanzania), one they buy from a family of The Savior sixth generation; another from a cooperative Colombian, from Guatemala and another family member Brazil . All their coffees have a first and last name, they know where they come from and they want them to end up in your house or on one of their marble tables. What is said is a 100% social café.
A new concept: social cafe
WHY GO?
Because coffee is the new wine . Everyone already knows a little more about coffee than you and you shouldn't be left behind. But also because even if you don't like the coffee, you have their teas and their breakfasts and snacks of toast with ham and tomato, or with avocado and fresh eco pasiego cheese with wild oregano from the Ebro delta and eco tomato powder from Ciudad Real. Or the roast beef sandwich for lunch.
ADDITIONAL FEATURES
“The project is 100% social”, says Carlos Zamora. “If [Café Angélica] generates profits, they will all go to a co-development project in African countries, such as Nigeria or the Ivory Coast, which is the first cocoa producer in the world and one of the largest coffee producers”. To the Ivory Coast, for example, they will send Philo, a Deluz & Cía employee for nine years, who would return to her country to lead a project in her community, detect the needs they have and see where they could best invest the money.
IN DATA
Address: Saint Bernard, 24
Telephone: 910 55 86 61
Schedule: Monday to Friday from 8 a.m. to 10 p.m. Saturdays and Sundays from 8 a.m. to 10:30 p.m.