Avocadería was started by three Italians and only uses fruit from the Mexican state of Michoacán
At this restaurant in the New York borough of Brooklyn, the avocado
reigns supreme. All the dishes at Avocaderia come with generous helpings
of the green fruit, which is imported from Michoacán. This Mexican
state accounts for four-fifths of the national avocado production,
and the United States is the main importer. Consumption of the fruit
has grown exponentially in America in recent years, and Avocadería’s
founders – three Italians in their 20s – have tapped into that. Avocadería touts itself as “the world’s first avocado bar.” One of the
founders, Francesco Brachetti, said in a telephone conversation with
Verne that their goal was to incorporate elements of the three cultures
involved. They called their place a bar because that is what Italians
call the establishments where they eat croissants and drink capuccinos.
Being in New York, they used the English term avocado (which in Spanish
would be
aguacate), then gave it a Spanish-sounding ending,
ería. Brachetti got the idea for this project soon after moving to
Mexico City in 2014 to work for the fashion industry. He soon began
consuming avocado, which is a staple ingredient of the Mexican diet, and quickly became a fan. “Eating it comes very naturally to Mexicans, but in Italy it is not very common and the quality is low,” he explains. He enlisted Alessandro Biggi, who was already living in
Brooklyn at the time and was familiar with the local market, to help
develop the concept. And the chef Alberto Gramigni designed a menu meant
to be “healthy and tasty” at the same time. According to
The Washington Post,
“sales of Hass avocados, which make up more than 95% of all avocados
consumed in the United States, soared to a record of nearly 1.9 billion
pounds (or some 4.25 billion avocados) last year, more than double the
amount consumed in 2005, and nearly four times as many sold in 2000.” In short, avocados are all the rage in America, and Brachetti knows it. “We are not trying to promote them, because they promote
themselves: everyone loves them,” he says. “But we do want to convey the
fact that besides being delicious, they are also a pretty healthy
food.” Avocaderia is located inside the food hall at Industry City, a complex
of warehouses located on the waterfront. “There are a lot of offices for
creative types, media firms, artists and decorators,” notes Brachetti.
These young workers make up the bulk of their clientèle, because, he
says, they share their own ideals of a healthy lifestyle.
Thanks to them, the three Italians are reaching one of the goals that
they had set for themselves: to offer healthy food in the land of
cheeseburgers.
EL PAÍS
