Interviews
What does La Celeste represent in Buenos Aires?
The restaurant is called La Celeste because it is a good synthesis of what is Uruguay. Even the newspapers in Montevideo refer to the national soccer team in that way, saying "La Celeste is playing today." It is enough, we all know what that means. However, our proposal is very familiar and it is not a sports theme restaurant. Nevertheless, La Celeste was a meeting point for watching the games, there were TV screens in the gallery , there were over one hundred people, sharing tables and chairs, with great enthusiasm, with all the attention on the screens. Nothing like this had ever happened in here.
The Argentine customers who come to eat at La Celeste look for a piece of Uruguay in Argentina, isn't it?
In a way, in recent years, we eventually became tourism ambassadors for our country. We printed tablecloths with a map of the coast, and during the summer season, with the complete map of Uruguay, we explain to our customers how to get to the resorts, we draw it on their maps. Our proposal is that the Argentinean who spends the summer in our country may find in La Celeste, a space with our warmth in May, or August.
Are there Uruguayan dishes in your menu?
You have to force reality, food in Uruguay and Argentina is very much alike. I always say that, between Argentine and Uruguayan cuisine, there is as much distance as between one bank and the other of the Uruguay River. We have several dishes, but the typical dish is not the "chivito" (a kind of sandwich), it is the "asado". But we lit the fire as Uruguayans do. We offer "pamplonas" for example. And we put the names of beaches to our salads: Pocitos, Cabo Polonio...
Just as the people who come to eat here orders a "pamplona", do they also order Tannat wine?
Yes, those who understand our proposal, want to taste the Uruguayan wine. Luckily now we have Don Pascual (imported by Lavaque), which is a good example of Tannat. Although not a premium wine, it fairly represents the Uruguayan standard of good wines. We also have some of Pisano. The customer who is a wine enthusiast, knows that there are now good Uruguayan wines, knows that Uruguay is making wine with dignity. Not like it was many years ago, undrinkable. The Tannat blends are very good, for example with Merlot. The blend is not a demerit, since it has its own character.
But if we have not more Uruguayan wines in the menu, it is because they do not get here. Wineries fail in their strategy, we sell a good volume of wine, but we have not any other wines from Uruguay. Argentina is a market that can be developed to drink Uruguayan wines. It is a huge market in which there is a public for that, but you have to promote it. As we have few Uruguayan wines, we offer Argentinian Tannat. At least, we guide them to the culture of Tannat.
If you had more Uruguayan wine, would you sell more?
Undoubtedly yes. With a small investment, a Uruguayan winery could set foot in Buenos Aires, there's a consumer for it. The winery would have to make an effort, make some contribution in marketing. But it would have to put a reasonable price, because it requires an effort. The wine has to be offered at each table, it has to be explained. We assume the risk that the client may not like it. With Don Pascual I have no problem, because anyone who knows a little bit of wine and has been in Uruguay, has drunk Don Pascual. I do not explain the Argentine wines. As a strategy, landing in Argentina can be difficult, and yet possible. It is a change in the head, not in the numbers. Before assuming the Presidency, Pepe Mujica came here to eat. I told him about this.
La Celeste only sells wine by the bottle?
No, we sell a good amount of wine by the glass, and we have no problems if the customer asks for it, in opening a bottle in his presence to sell only one glass from it. Habits have changed dramatically, the consumption per person is smaller. In this sense, because of the alcohol tests, wineries have seriously launched their series in bottles of 350 cc. There is a range of good quality wines in smaller quantities.
Do you sell Medio y Medio?
We have a Medio y Medio, the 05/05 by Pisano. People asks for it, identifying it as "that white sparkling wine" he drunk when he went to eat at the Mercado del Puerto. Everyone who visited Montevideo, and has eaten there, asks for it, because the Mercado del Puerto is "the" gastronomic reference in the city, not La Pasiva. And the Medio y Medio is "the" drink of the Mercado del Puerto. I think that we could sell even more Medio y Medio than Tannat wine.
What are the future plans for La Celeste?
We want to be a small business, not a diner. And we bet to growth. We are ready to meet the challenge, we have been in Argentina for a long time, but we are Uruguayans, that is why our motto is "parrilla y almacén de Montevideo". Hopefully we will continue representing the country better and better.
BOX
A parrilla more Uruguayan than Gardel himself
The coasters have Gardel's face. The photocopy of Gardel's Uruguayan passport is a flyer that the client picks up at the entrance, as soon as he crossed the door. In the gallery, a huge board with clippings leaves no doubt about the nationality of the tango idol. In La Celeste, where most of the customers are from Argentina, this is a topic beyond discussion. Gardel is Uruguayan. For sure.
Photo Gallery
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on wineries in Uruguay.
