WE'VE OPENED A RESTAURANT! WHAT HAVE WE GOTTEN INTO?

A corner house on Calle Real in the prettiest little town in Colombia. Barichara is Colombia's architectural and cultural heritage and is increasingly gaining importance on international tourist circuits, welcoming visitors year-round. At the same time, even before the tourism boom, it has been a place of new beginnings for other Colombians and foreigners who decide to leave their lifestyle generally associated with big cities and exchange it all for an experience of profound tranquility: a house in the town or on the sidewalk, a tree, a dog, a cat, a view of the imposing Andes Mountains every morning.

We arrived in the town as part of this second group, after the 2020 pandemic, happy to find ourselves in a moment of mental clarity and eager to live with purpose. A small country house began to smell of bread in the mornings, powered by the single oven we brought from Chía. After the first bake, the white country house was filled with orders of bread and cookies and arrived at the doorstep of each new customer. Thus began the construction of our community. A few weeks later, small groups of neighbors came to eat their bread with us, on the newly made crushed stone terraces, under the avocado trees.

MILANA IN EL LLANO, BARICHARA; 2021.

These visits grew into a new family that doesn't share a last name but does share an immense love for this land and its way of life. We expanded our invitation with brunch menus, then lunch, afternoons of sourdough pizza and wine to watch the sunset. Two years on the sidewalk, 3 km from town, embarking on a restaurant experience behind closed doors, by reservation, in our own home, the Milana house.

But the town worked its magic, and conversation after conversation, friend after friend, we were soon embarking on this new adventure: opening a formal restaurant on the main street of the most beautiful town in the country. Milana opened its doors to the public in September 2024, without an inauguration, without a sign on the facade, just as we wanted to do it, slowly and with great attention to what each day would teach us. And it surprised us! Barichara is a tremendously generous and prosperous town for good ideas, grateful for quality and commitment, eager for good experiences. This very thing then became our promise. This house on the corner has become our living room for entertaining friends, for conversation and delicious food, for making new plans and watching the plans of those who sit at these tables come to fruition; here houses are built, dogs are rescued, forests are planted, we learn to conserve water, we propose and celebrate weddings... and well, it's also reserved for brunch, lunch, and good pastries.

THE NEW MILANA, SEPTEMBER 2024; FIRST WEEK OF ACTIVITIES.

A very beautiful movement that has been taking place in Milana is the realization of the great exposure we have as individuals and the house itself as a public space. Therefore, we have strived to take advantage of this aspect to also offer this exposure to those who may not yet have it but who have made enormous contributions to our project. Tablecloths, lamps, and chairs from artisans in Curití, crockery baked in Barichara, stonework from Villanueva, and even the burnt clay napkin rings from the Lubigará village; everything is used, displayed, and offered here at home. The visitor connects with the artisan, develops a craving and creates their own order, taking home a piece of the territory. We formalize this effect on this very website, in the space we call ENTORNO MILANA, which connects more and more talented neighbors who live inside our house and our kitchen through their products and services.

A family that chooses itself day after day and that supports this dream with little planning and a lot of direction. What have we gotten ourselves into? Well, we've landed where we belonged.