By: Alexa Herrera
A tiny hole-in-the-wall restaurant has big goals for their students and for carrying out their mission.
When you walk past the restaurant at Comte Borrell 122, it may look like an ordinary place to sit and eat food. With colorful furniture, posters scattered across the walls and the specials for the day written on a chalkboard, it seems like just another charming restaurant in Barcelona.
But, on the inside, students are cooking and taking your order.
This is the entrance to the Mescladís which was created in 2005. It has indoor seating, patio setting where the front is open and total outdoor seating.
Mescaldís is a non-profit entity that is a restaurant, but also a school and social justice organization that has a mission to contribute to social cohesion in the city.
The organization says they are contributing through their different projects and their main initiative, which is the Cuinant Oportunitats Program.
The chalkboard below the restaurant’s sign encapsulates what Mescladís is. It has social justice issues such as diversity that the restaurant cares about.
The Program for Students
This three month program trains people, mainly immigrants, to be waiters or waitresses and kitchen assistants. Mescladís gives people with difficulting accessing jobs new opportunities.
Their team is made up of diverse individuals who are committed to a just society.
Some workers are from places like Syria and Pakistan, and Mescladís is trying to integrate these refugees into the community.
By working in the restaurants, the students gain real world experience in the business. Sara Tuygunova, a waitress, said she has enjoyed her experience at Mescladís.
“This program has been great for me since I love to cook,” she said.
Tuygunova said she is learning how to be a waitress and a cooking assistant so that she can have a job to support herself. In addition to having a job, she said she likes how the restaurant cares about social justice issues.
“It is not only a school and restaurant, but it is a place that wants to help the community,” she said.
The students learn subjects such as nutrition, hygiene, food safety and how to deal with customers' specific needs. The program also includes social skills classes taught by psychologists from a local school and art therapy and theater classes taught by people from a local theater.
After they finish the program, many graduates go on to work in other restaurants and hotels.
Projects for Social Justice
When you sit down to eat your food there is a placemat that has a person’s face on it in black and white. This placemat is an example of one of the projects of Mescladís.
It is called split lives, and the goal is to highlight the different stories of young immigrants and denounce about the discrimination and social injustice they are faced with.
This placemat is a part of the Split Lives project and shows a 20-year-old man named Bousselham that migrated to Spain for work.
The restaurant partnered with artist and photographer Teo Vazquez to create this project that raises awareness through urban art.
The project talks about how immigration law in Spain violates the rights of children, which leads to exclusion and discrimination.
There is an exhibition of the art from this project at La Pou Gallery. Also, Mescaldís offers two workshops, one for adults and one for adolescents, that discuss the artwork from this project.
Migrant City is another project Mescladís is involved with that contributes to coexistence and social cohesion through diversity. There is a website that is a part of the project that has photos and audio clips that focus on human rights of migrants.
These are two posters for the Migrant City Project that was created in 2011.
Mescladís offers workshops in relation to the project for people of all ages. These workshops will help participants learn about cultural diversity and why it is important. Mescladís wants to teach people about migrants in order for them to be able to deconstruct prejudices and stereotypes.
This cartoon is from the book A gift for Kushbu which is about stories of immigrants that came to Barcelona for a better life. Mescladís aided in the production of this work.
The Food
The restaurant has a wide array of cheaply priced food including food for breakfast, brunch and dinner.
It is open Monday through Friday from 10:30 a.m. until 12:30 a.m.
You can try food from all around the world here. The restaurant has dishes from Japan, Mexico, Norway, Peru, Senegal and more.
The students will take your order of sandwiches such as the Moroccan style baked eggplant sandwich with hummus and cheese on homemade Moroccan bread. You can also have traditional tapas such as potatoes bravas or an international style tapas like the Colombian Patacones, which is banana with pulled beef, beans, cheese and pico de gallo.
There are also an array of drinks such as sodas, coffees and teas.
After their main dish, customers can try their homemade desserts such as carrot cake and brownies.
Reuban Derlly, a customer, said he likes to come here when he needs a quick bite to eat. He said he usually gets the empanadas or the berta caceres sandwich.
“The restaurant has a great atmosphere,” he said. “The food is so good that it doesn't seem like students are preparing it.”
The restaurant also has a small bar which has craft beer.
Integration with the neighborhood
To expand inclusion in the city, Mescladís offers workshops and development activities for the community.
In terms of workshops, the restaurant provides ones for adults, children, organizations and groups.
According to their website, Mescladís says the workshops allow people to debate cultures, war, refugees, migrants and many other topics all while meeting in the kitchen. It is important to discuss these topics while cooking because every person has grown up sitting at a table with a plate of food so everyone has that in common.
This collection of small posters are a combination of pieces from the Migrant City and Split Lives projects and the A gift for Kushbu book.
From there, participants can delve deeper into these heavy topics and resolve prejudice and stereotypes.
The kids workshops are available for ages 4 through 14. Guest chefs from around the world come and show them how to make dishes and share their culture with the kids.
The adult workshops are for people looking to expand their horizons on issues involving migrants. It gives them the space to talk about and reflect on certain issues while making different dishes to enjoy.
If an organization or private group wants to do a workshop, it can contact Mescladís to set one up.
Big Goals for Tiny Restaurant
While eating food and sitting on the colorful furniture, you may not even realize the mission of Mescladís. But, their decorations are filled with information about the issues they support.
This restaurant is a trifecta that is impacting the community with workshops and their educational program while serving delicious food.
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