Mercè Casademunt's latest chocolate at Granja Viader

BarcelonaIt is Tuesday afternoon, and at Granja Viader in Barcelona (c. Xuclà, 6) the tables are full of people eating hot chocolate with a side of whipped cream and another small plate of churros with sugar on top. Serving them is Marc Espuny Casademunt (Barcelona, 1986), who today is his first day working there as the owner. He is doing so just one month before his mother, Mercè Casademunt Viader (Barcelona, 1959), retires at 67 years old. "I would have liked to retire earlier, but the years for me to do so were not being credited, and there was also the fact that Marc had never told me that he wanted to take over the farm." He didn't tell her until we interviewed him, two years ago, and he told us he had no successor. "It was after your article that Marc and I talked, and he told me: «Mother, I want to take over Granja Viader»", explains Mercè, happy. She has Marc by her side, who has spent the day working there as he did at seventeen, the first time he worked there.

Anyone who has been to Granja Viader knows that it is an establishment with a lot of history. Mercè Casademunt knows it all, with the marked years. The establishment is one hundred and fifty-six years old; it dates from 1850. First it was a dairy, but without cows, that sold milk. Marc's great-grandfather went to ask for work around the year 1900, and after years he had already bought it. Around the 20s he transformed it into a farm, as it is today, but in between there was the Civil War. His six sons went to war, and the only one who stayed was the daughter, Marc's great-grandmother and Mercè's grandmother, who saw how the CNT committee confiscated the premises and stayed to live with her. "It was during this time that the premises were expanded, because at first it was a smaller space," recalls Mercè, who adds that her grandmother had told her that despite everything, the war had passed, and that the anarchists stayed to work at Granja Viader some time later.

Each recipe, from a different family member

As mother and son are talking, a waitress approaches me and tells me to please write that "La Granja Viader is not closing, they will continue as always". And Marc emphasizes: "I don't intend to touch anything, because everything is fine: the chocolate formula, the recipes, which include those from my great-grandmother, my grandmother, my mother, and mine". It's very fun to ask them whose recipe each of the things they sell is. "From my mother, the ricotta flan; from my great-grandmother, the ricotta cake; mine, the chocolate pudding, the Catalan cream mousse, the fresh cheese cake with jam," points out Marc, who when he left the family farm as a young man, worked in other companies and also traveled to Mexico. There was also a moment when mother and son understood that it was better for them to work separately, and it wasn't because they didn't get along but because they had different ways of doing things, because they are from different generations. "For all this, and because she had never told me anything, I thought she wouldn't want to keep La Granja Viader," explains Mercè, who reveals that when Ara Mengem published that she was looking for someone to take over the business, she received all kinds of offers. "They even offered me blank checks, where they told me to put the price I wanted, and they would accept it." Of course, the establishment is very well located, it's central, and it has an established clientele.

And no, it hasn't been necessary for anyone to buy Granja Viader for Marc to want to work there for at least forty more years, he comments: "I'm forty now, and I feel strong enough to be here for many years." On the table where we are sitting, and where we start to eat melted chocolate (made with cocoa, corn flour, salt, sugar, and cinnamon), is the menu of food that can be ordered. "Mom, you've made it new; I didn't know it," says Marc. His mother replies that yes, she just designed it with the help of artificial intelligence, with which she has transformed a photograph of the interior as if it were a drawing. Inside is the top three most ordered products, which are crema catalana, Cacaolat, and honey and curd cheese with walnuts. By the way, with the menu design change, there has also been a price increase. "Minimal, because until now chocolate with churros cost 6.50 euros and now 7.

I pick up the thread of the other ways of doing things that they told me about before, and I ask Marc if there is anything he wants to change regarding what his mother used to do. "The hours, the closing days, I want to rethink them, because I think perhaps we could have the afternoons open and only close on Sundays." At this point, Mercè enters, who explains that closing from 1:30 PM to 5 PM and having Sundays and Mondays off has been the balance she has found with the staff so that everyone does their hours. "I don't know if it would work in the afternoon, because we are not a restaurant, but it's true that we make sandwiches. I don't know, all of this is what Marc will have to try," she says. Marc believes it could be changed, except for Sundays, which he does want to be holidays because he remembers his grandfather telling him that Sundays are for resting: "My great-grandfather rested on his saint's day, Sant Jaume, and on Reyes, but Viader was open; he only took two days off."

The conversation now turns to sales figures. "On December 6th, we sold nine liters of melted chocolate in four hours, it was non-stop," says Mercè, who admits that cold weather is the best time for Granja Viader. When it's hot, business slows down a bit, even though they sell Catalan cream and melted chocolate all year round, at all hours, until 9 PM when they close. Today, the day of Marc's return, she started with fifteen liters of Catalan cream, which are torched on the spot according to demand. "And we also fry the churros on the spot, in a fryer dedicated solely to churros," they explain.

To finish, we still need to talk about Mercè's last day of work. It will be on June 10th, and she has already made plans with friends who will visit her in the morning and afternoon. There will surely be celebratory drinks to mark her retirement and her newfound time for other activities. "I'm looking forward to resting, reading, doing other activities, like living outside of Barcelona, away from this center, because I live above Viader, and you can't walk around here." Mercè wants to go to Cardedeu, where she has a house with a garden. When she retires, she also wants to celebrate with the workers by visiting the Viader Museum in Cardedeu. "And I won't go too far, because I'm the one in charge of the numbers, and until Marc learns them, I'll keep handling them." There will be a moment, a day, when the handover is complete and then Marc will indeed take on all tasks. There will still be one pending task that Marc is kindly asking her to do: "Explain everything you know about Granja Viader to my father so he can write a book." Marc reveals that his parents are Catalan teachers, that they met at university, and that his father enjoys writing. "The way my father writes, and with all that my mother knows, we could create a book so that the history of Viader isn't lost." His mother agrees, saying they will do it. She says this while standing behind the counter where they sell Catalan creams, as a queue of people has formed and needs to be served. They will do it all.

For now, the most immediate task: on June 10th, she will take off and hang up the black jacket she has worn all these years to serve customers at Granja Viader.