A century selling paprika in the San Blas market

Enrique Gil picked up the baton from his father, in charge of the Casa del Pimentón, almost unintentionally. He had run around among the sacks and spices since he took his first steps and had decided that he had already spent enough hours there, that he wanted another job. «When I didn’t study my father punished me and took me with him to the store, and when I got good grades, since I had vacations and both my father and my mother were in the store, I also had to go because I couldn’t stay home alone . So I decided to dedicate myself to maintenance, I trained and what I wanted was to start an electricity business,” Enrique remembers.

But that approach fell apart when, while he was already working as an electrician, his father told Enrique – and his sister – that he was going to sell the business because it was time for him to retire. Enrique was sad that the family lost the business that his great-grandmother had founded in the late 1920s, so – despite already having his life on track towards other goals – he told his father to leave him. prove. “I was hired with my father for two years, theoretically learning, but of course, I realized that I already knew everything because I had been here since I was a child.” Therefore, when the time came to take charge of everything, there was not the slightest problem, “although the perspective changed because I realized everything that lies behind a business. The issue of paperwork is very expensive, and that has been increasing over time. When my father was there he was younger, but now…

All the administrative procedures are the hardest for Enrique, who points out that he has had to abide by regulations even “about how I have to dress in the store…”.

The bureaucratic and administrative issue is not what has changed the most over time, habits have also changed and with it the type of sale: “Before, what was sold the most, for example in my father’s time, was paprika and the spices that were used for slaughter. In winter there was a lot more work for that, but now it’s different, now we sell more to restaurants and butcher shops, and to some meat companies,” he points out, although the truth is that retail sales do not stop in the establishment, the flow of customers is constant. Some arrive knowing what they want, others ask (for example, if rosemary also has beneficial properties for the face), and everyone is treated with kindness and knowledge. “We must recognize that we are lucky, because people value us,” Enrique points out with satisfaction, “we offer quality and specialization that cannot be found in supermarkets and, almost always, cheaper,” he admits, and refers to an anecdote from last summer: “We closed for two weeks for vacation and on the way back a woman who had once told us that our prices were high told me ‘My goodness, I bought (a spice) at the supermarket, how bad it is, and what’s more expensive’. That is something that comforts me because people realize what we do and how we do it,” says Enrique Gil, who states that his work is limited – which is no small thing – “to finding the best product and offering it to affordable prices”. The fact of buying large quantities – usually by the sack – allows you to access good quality at a competitive price “and since I buy a lot, normally, the suppliers do not stop supplying me like when there is a shortage. “They usually serve me well, even if it’s a small amount they can sell me.”

Specialization

Another of the virtues of ‘La Casa del Pimentón’ is specialization, and in that, Enrique – as a member of the fourth generation of the family at the head of the business – has it more difficult than his ancestors. «Before, much fewer spices were used, but we knew very well what each one was for. Now there are many, but we don’t know how to use them,” he explains. “There are times when a chef has used a rare species in a recipe he has made on television and people come to ask for it, but they don’t know how to use it,” and he says, “in this case, the more information, the less people know, because What is missing is training.

In any case, Enrique Gil is very satisfied with the decision made at the time. Although he does not know if he will find the replacement in his nieces, he is happy with his work and believes that his clients are also “there are people who come to Logroño once a year, but they take the opportunity to shop here, because like most of the products have a very long expiration date…”

At the moment he remains comfortable running the business and recognizes that if he wins the lottery “he would continue working… but only in the mornings,” he jokes.

Smells and flavors from other worlds transmitted by four generations

The basement of the Plaza de Abastos (Mercado de San Blas) hides a small treasure on its façade on Sagasta Street. Mrs. Eusebia arrived in Logroño from Santo Domingo to sell her paprika and her spices in the markets. When the Mercado de Abastos was inaugurated, she sold them inside, but in an open stall. It was a few years later when the family got a location on the second floor and then occupied the small store on the façade that faces Sagasta. The members of four generations of the Gil family have been giving life to the business and offering an attractive smell to customers and passers-by. From paprika for slaughter, they have been moving on to other food spices from remote corners of the world, to serve a public that demands more variety.