Five generations later, the oldest restaurant in Bogotá hangs a “for sale” sign

With 121 years of history, “The daisies”, one of the restaurants oldest of Colombiais looking for a buyer who will continue the family legacy and the traditional recipe that has led this small establishment to serve the best empanadas in Bogota.

The Ángel Arenas family opened the establishment in 1902, after moving to the still rustic area of ​​Chapinero where now five generations have prepared traditional Bogota dishes.

Since then, he has lived “Bogotazo” in 1948, the riots that occurred after the murder of Jorge Eliécer Gaitán when they had to face 15 days of shortages, and the covid-19 pandemic, which forced them to close the business for eight months and since which they have only opened on weekends. week. Also the daily fights with neighbors that have caused some power outages.

However, the biggest threat they now have is the lack of a family heir to take over from the current owner, Julio Ríos, and therefore they are looking for a buyer who wants to continue the tradition of the restaurant because his only son resides in Germany and has another profession.

“We can remain until we find a client who is affordable and who wants to continue with the tradition, because we are clear with our ancestors that this has to be immortal (…) We have all the recipes, and the important thing is that these people take the soul of this so that everything remains the same”, Ríos explains to EFE without, however, showing too much concern about a possible closure.

Special empanada recipe

The restaurant is also known as “Chapinero Loot” honoring the oldest restaurant in the world: “The loot”, which is located in Spain. After a century, they continue to preserve the magical empanada recipe of Margarita, the founder of the restaurant and great-great-grandmother of the current owner.

Margarita made them with the wooden pilón, a disused indigenous instrument used to give the crushed corn the aroma of wood with which the restaurant obtained a large number of “dumplings” who visited the place in search of their daily ration of empanadas.

That same pylon continues in a corner of the restaurant, but now his heirs use more modern and faster tools.

“Now we have industrial mills with which we grind the same corn grains and extract the dough and flour from that; It is expensive and quite hard work.” says Ríos, who also highlights that they have had to adapt to new raw materials over the decades.

In the beginning, the products came from the garden and the chickens, cows and pigs that the owners had on that same farm. And they still continue to serve, although with other products, the same Bogotá food, such as ajiaco (a potato and chicken soup), cuchuco (a corn, barley or wheat soup), sobrebarriga (beef fillet in sauce) or language.

“People lined up to get in and came on foot, on horseback or by tram,” says Ríos before highlighting that “Now there are many Bogotá food restaurants but not with the seasoning that we have”.

Favorite place of presidents of Colombia

The walls of “The daisies” They are full of newspaper clippings, articles in which the restaurant has been reviewed, photographs with illustrious figures who have sat at their tables and fragments of “Diccionario cachaco”, a publication that collected Bogota words and terms already in disuse.

Rulers have also entered through its door; Ríos especially remembers Eduardo Santos, president between 1938 and 1942, a gentleman “very much home”who went every weekend even without any escort.

“Also the relatives of the Saints, the relatives of the liberals more than anything (…) These people come for their fix of empanadas and they love coming here, this is a spectacular tradition of all”, he concludes.