Juliana, the new gastronomic ‘hostess’ of Panama Street, in the tourist center of Guayaquil

Each space has a story behind it. When the elevator doors in the house where the Cocoa Museum (Panama and Imbabura) they open when you go up to the third floor, the first of your senses to be captivated will be the view. Walls covered entirely with patterned wallpaper, turquoise, and countless paintings with old photographs will welcome you as you enter Juliana, the newly opened restaurant bar. Juliana. This gastronomic venture is committed to attracting more visitors to this sector of the city center, which is becoming a culinary attraction due to its diversity in proposals, comes from the hand of Agustín and Daniel Febres-Cordero.

“This is a project that my brother and I always had, we both shared the same vision, that Guayaquil should have more places with their own identity. The idea was born at the beginning of this year, but we wanted to work together since we were little. My brother had seen the Guzmán house more than three years ago, even before all the regeneration of Panama Street began. For things in life, after the restoration of the house and the administration of the house passed to Hacienda Victoria, who had known Agustín for a long time, they called him to propose the space. Thus we began to conceptualize the project that represents the city. It’s like coming to the house in Guayaquil,” says Daniel.

Julianahe explains, adopts his name in homage to the wife of Jose Joaquin de Olmedo as Maria Rosa Juliana de Ycaza). “She was part of a family that was always linked to the export of cocoa, so she fit perfectly with what we wanted to show. We are on the terrace of the Cocoa Museum and that she is an important figure for Guayaquil and she also makes that allegory for the city’s July festivities, ”she adds.

Installations

Juliana, indicates Daniel, is a space that has been conceived as an experience that represents the city. “Juliana represents what Guayaquil was in the past, this historical heritage of the city, as seen in the decoration, had to also represent what Guayaquil is today, precisely in an area that has to start to be reactivated, in the heart of the city, and also where it has to aim. It represents our identity, values, flavors and ingredients and from there we knew how the place should feel. A months-long investigation was carried out, I visited the center, I visited the south and the first thing we defined was the color palette, not only light blue, we wanted a color palette that summarizes all those found in the city, which is cheerful and open,” he says.

At the entrance to the restaurant, the walls have wallpaper that covers them entirely. The floor -he points out- was created faithfully following the design of the original tiles of the house. “When I came to see the site I toured the museum and found a bathroom that had an original floor and walls (hand painted tiles). I took a photo and recreated that layout that the heritage house already had,” she says.

Daniel points out that during the development of the project they had the support of different people and entities. “Many historians recommended us to acquaintances, the staff of the Municipal Library gave me books, everyone behaved 100 points. From there we arrived with the people of Guayaquil, stories in color”. The authors of the book (Vicente Adum and Édgar Landívar) took two years to make the selection of photographs, restoration, colorization and complementary historical research.

From said post, Juliana exhibits 143 photos from the book plus four images from the personal album of the Febres-Cordero family. “My father, Agustín Febres-Cordero, between 80 and 95, held the celebrity tournament in Guayaquil. So we collected the photos he had from the tournament. He still doesn’t know that we have his photos on display and that we took them to those responsible for the book so they could colorize them. The idea with this entrance hall is that our visitors see the historical context of what his city was like”, he maintains.

Opening

Daniel defines Juliana as a cocktail bar with haute cuisine. “It is conceived that way, you have a letter to be able to come and eat super yummy, drinking super yummy. One of our objectives and for which we are working is to become the first bar in Ecuador to enter the list of the 50 best worldwide, that is why we have focused on the development of the cocktail menu”, he adds.

Inside the restaurant there are four rooms, one of which is La Cava de Juliana. In this area, around a large table, rest the various drinks that are served in the establishment. “Here is a selection of wines to which we put a lot of head, taking into account the place where we are, fresh wines for the day, for the heat of Guayaquil, with a super complete selection”, he exposes.

The bar welcomes the visitor and while you sit down to enjoy a drink you can appreciate a beautiful view of the hill. “One of the challenges that we have proposed with Juliana was to present this cocktail bar concept and see if people would adopt it, and we have been crazy to see how people come in groups or couples and enjoy the variety of the letter,” says Daniel.

This month its opening hours to the public start from 12:00 to 00:00, from Tuesday to Saturday (the restaurant is working with reduced capacity).

Juliana works with prior reservation (in this way it is safer not to wait a long time according to the demand of the day).

Menu

Your menu is accurate. However, it is nicely complemented by the extensive drinks menu. They have duck croquettes, dumplings criollos, lots of crab, roasted prawns, kale salad, gnocchi of yellow sweet potato, crispy pork belly with its juice, white fish in coral butter, grilled octopus, tongue and peanut stew, and Guayasense grilled narrow steak.

In the desserts there are three options. fried rice pudding (crumble passion fruit lemon verbena ice cream), cocoa (ground chocolate 75%, mousse 55% chocolate, white chocolate ganache, mucilage jam and nibs), coconut ice cream (coulis of naranjilla, pan de dulce, seasonal fruit macerated in cane liquor). Juliana’s kitchen is in charge of chef Miguel Yagual.

“What we wanted was to represent the flavors of our city in haute cuisine dishes, they are flavors that will be familiar and will make you remember special and familiar moments. What we want is for our customers to rediscover ingredients that are not always found in a restaurant”, emphasizes Daniel.

In the drinks menu, which will vary every three months, classic cocktails have been reinterpreted with ingredients and flavors representative of the city. This is how you can find Uvilla Spritz (white port, caramelized orange bitters and house tonic), PDY sour (beefeater, naranjilla, yogurt whey and cassava bread), a variety of vodka, gin, rum, brandy, sherry, reds, whites, among others.

Sara Ruiz was in charge of developing this proposal. She was previously the head of the beverage program for a Michelin-starred restaurant and also for a hospital group in Washington, which made the 50 Best list.