In February 2015, Gonzalo Luzardo decided to buy the Cantábrico bar, in the Our Lady of Africa Market, one of the nerve centers of Santa Cruz de Tenerife. His idea was to create a new space -knowing that it was a place where several generations “came and continue to come”-, new but respecting some of the previous identity signs. The Cantabrian store, the one we all know, will continue to serve the public, with many novelties, being now a store of the Granier chain, with a cafeteria and its own production of products.
The transformation, as revealed by Gonzalo himself, began in 2018, when he decided to take an important measure, such as not dispensing alcohol before 9:00 a.m.: “We wanted to give it a new approach because the idea was to open the premises to families and, in general, people who want to have a good time”.
As for everyone, the Covid pandemic arrived, forcing them to adapt to the new times, to improve and, above all, offer the client what they demand: “Cleaning is required at all levels, also visual. We undertook a comprehensive reform, between March and April 2021 because we wanted to promote market cuisine, to be able to move it at noon”.
But, at the same time that this change was taking shape, Gonzalo Luzardo had been working with the Granier franchise since 2016, who had always considered that that local Our Lady of Africa Market it was “ideal” for an establishment of this type: “There is already a bakery in the market, so, as it is a cooperative, we have to respect some rules. That is why we do not sell bread, although all our sandwiches, which are made on the spot, are of the recognized quality of Granier”.
There were already two Granier in La Laguna, on Calle Obispo Rey Redondo and Avenida Trinidad, to which must be added the one in Plaza de Weyler, in Santa Cruz de Tenerife, so Gonzalo opted to convert that concept he had acquired for the Cantábrico bar in something that he “controlled well” such as the bakery, cafeteria, candy store: “Monto Granier, with all its new image, knowing that we have clients who are children, of the children of the children of the people who came to the local. El Cantábrico had the cliché of being a breakfast-only place, something that we have been changing. Someone dedicated to the hospitality industry told me ‘it’s easier to start a business from scratch than to do what you did’.
Give life to the area with new hours
In a place like the Nuestra Señora de África Market, the new Granier is a place of passage for many people, from neighbors to visitors, although Gonzalo’s real desire is to ensure that the people of the area have a meeting place: “We close at 7:00 p.m. trying to energize this area in the afternoons. I think that people, despite the fact that there are many houses around, don’t quite get around it and we want to invite them to do so, finding a nice place to have coffee, eat something and chat”.
It is true that the Plaza Primero de Mayo is a place with a lot of activity in the mornings, but after 3:00 p.m., when the activity of the buildings that occupy public offices ceases, that activity drops very sharply. Striking, being an enclave of passage in which, in addition, the TEA is located.
Sandwiches, star product
The new Granier offers, in addition to pastries and sweets, some tapas, although the star product is its gourmet sandwiches “made at the moment” with a wide variety of bread: “Although we do not sell bread, we do make these sandwiches with our bread, which is not It is frozen, which has 11 hours of fermentation, of great quality and with a very important variety. We bake at Weyler’s and bring it in each day. The sweets, soon, will all be baked here and on the day, as we also do in the La Laguna stores”.
This menu of breads -they have nine different types, from onion, to focaccia or muffin-, allows them to prepare “the sandwiches of a lifetime”, as Gonzalo points out: “We still have the leg, loin, tortilla French…Traditional and that all our clients continue to ask us for”.
