Belorado exmonjas get the opening license for their “closing restaurant” in Asturias

Through a statement from their press chief, Belorado’s exclaimas have announced that they have already been granted “the opening license for the closing restaurant of Arriondas (Asturias)”, so that in the coming weeks they will proceed to their opening. According to the statement, its objective is to promote «a gastronomic project consisting of a combination of Traditional Asturian dishes and the best of the chief cuisinein addition to its famous chocolates ».

The restaurant is located at the Ribera del Chicu Hotel, in Arriondas, which the excrete have rented for 1,600 euros a month obtained thanks – according to themselves they have recognized – for the sale of 1.7 kilos of gold bullion owned by the monastery of Belorado. The establishment is at the beginning of the AS-260 road (Arriondas-Colunga, the El Fito road), about five hundred meters from the center of Arriondas. The town, from which the international descent of the seal begins every yearis one of the tourist centers with the most influx of Asturias, especially in summer, in addition to having a long tradition of good gastronomy, with restaurants of great recognition.

In a video with which they accompany the press release, they explain how they intend to combine the closure of a contemplative order with the ordinary hustle of a restaurant, which ‘a priori’ seems uncomitable. As explained by the former excommunicated religious Roser More Sellés, known in her stage of Clarisa as Sor Berit, «The sisters are going to cook the restaurant menus And there will be sure that they will serve in this dining room », which allegedly would avoid the exit of the ex -religious from the closing zone, which would be the rest of the hotel they have rented. The excrete equals the treatment given to guests in the closing monasteries that have a lodge.

However, the presence of lay people in the restaurant implies their hiring, in addition to their training in matters such as food handling. Expenses that, added to the rental of the place and the raw materials, complicate the economic viability of the projectsince the town has a markedly seasonal tourism, very concentrated in summer and in holiday periods such as Christmas and Holy Week. Given the proven poor management that the ex -religious have made in previous businesses, this will undoubtedly be a handicap for the viability of the project.

Another issue that is not clear is those who of the ex -religious will be in charge of the one called “closing restaurant.” If the first days in Arriondas who were seen were the previously known as Sor Alma, Sor Sion and Sor Myryam, Now the prominence has fallen to Sor Beritwhich maintains in the video that “when necessary to support some preparations or in the restaurant I will be here and, when not, I will be in Belorado taking care of the older sisters and the domestic corral.”

Everything suggests that the ex -religious will rotate among the different places, since there are only eight and at the moment they maintain a stable presence in the monasteries of Belorado and Orduña and at the Hotel de Arriondas, in addition to spending “occasionally” by The convent of Derio. A dispersion that makes community life really live that have supposedly chosen as a vocation.