Restaurant Resilience During the Pandemic

When the pandemic hit Buenos Aires, thousands of restaurants were forced to immediately close as the city went into lockdown. Once allowed to open, for delivery and takeaway only, many had to drastically adapt and change concepts. This was the case of Café San Juan, the popular San Telmo restaurant owned by celebrity chef Leandro “Lele” Cristóbal, which is known for its Spanish and Italian influenced Porteño cooking, and adjacent vermouth bar, La Vermutería.  

Lele Cristóbal is a household name in Argentina and became a savior to many home cooks during the pandemic on social media. Argentina had lockdown restrictions, and during quarantine, he uploaded a different video each day teaching his fans how to cook a specific recipe. In total, he and his wife Cecilia Gueta (who filmed and edited the entire process) made 233 different dishes.

Lele Cristóbal’s right hand chef in the kitchen is Mercedes “Mecha” Solís. Formerly in charge of the kitchen at Argentina’s top fine dining restaurant, Mecha helped to reinvent the restaurant under a COVID context. Their new mission? Making affordable and comfort foods for the community.

The success of Café San Juan during the pandemic can be attributed to its simplified menu, sold at a very affordable price, and an extremely organized kitchen of 20 cooks. The restaurant transformed to resemble that of a catering or factory kitchen, operations shifted to produce less quantity of dishes on a massive scale in order to meet their huge demand.

Even the main dining room of the restaurant, which normally seats 90 people, transformed into an office. There, the staff runs all sorts of operations: from taking orders, to organizing deliveries, to producing content for social media.

“We make food that people want to eat,” Mecha Solís says, explaining that the menu features one daily special, which changes weekly. It usually consists of Argentine comfort foods like milanesas, lentil stews, chorizos, meatballs, sandwiches, and a wide selection of desserts. 

In addition to daily specials, Café San Juan delivers precooked meal packs that just need to be heated up. These types of dishes proved to be very convenient to their clients, especially during the lockdown, and many would stock their freezers with the pre portioned and vacuumed sealed meals.

Everything at Café San Juan is made fresh and in house. They make all breads, desserts, and comfort food dishes from scratch every day.

Meatballs and orecchiette pasta is one type of daily special made at Café San Juan. Albóndigas means meatball in Spanish and usually it is served with tuco, tomato sauce. 

Café San Juan makes some of the best alfajores in the city. These cookies are usually filled with dulce de leche and dipped in chocolate. Mecha also makes a version with peanut butter, and the Mechini a dessert with Italian merengue, whipped cream, and dulce de leche.

“Admiration, respect, and giving thanks.” That is why Café San Juan packs hot meals in their truck every Friday to deliver to local hospitals and community kitchens. These donations are their way of giving back to those in need during these difficult times, and also giving thanks to front line health care workers after seven long months of dedication, sacrifice, and caring for COVID patients.