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Inglés
In this week’s ‘Memories of Casa de Campo’ post Carol Burke reminisces about an old pizza restaurant called ‘Cafe del Sol’ which used to be in Altos de Chavon. The restaurant has now been closed and although the building (and the old sign) still remains the cafe is unused all year. – except for at halloween time, when it is used to host the annual Halloween party! (Correction: The Halloween party was in fact held in the Cafe del Rio – next door to the old Cafe del Sol – opps!)
Pizza al Sole e Ombreggiato: Café del Sol, a Leafy Retreat from the Day
Café del Sol was the only place in Altos de Chavon in the early 1990s which was open for lunch. Café del Sol became a refreshing interlude in the day for visitors to Altos.
Café del Sol was open for dinner too, with strings of lights on the latticework arbor overhead making it look like a European-style outdoor beer garden.
The building was covered in climbing vines with beautiful yellow trumpet flowers. Underneath the arbor it was dark and cool, just the ticket on a steaming hot day. Surrounded by vines and flowers, you could imagine that you were in a shadowy woodland.
My favorite time of day to go to Café del Sol was on a clear hot afternoon. From the Café terrace one could look out over the Chavon River, above the ancient rain forest, to the mysterious mountains on the horizon, while chilling out with a Presidente ceniza and contemplating the artistic menus.
There were two menus. The antipasti and pizzas menu was in the shape of a pizza with a close-up photo of a pizza on the cover, and it featured 19 delicious pizzas, and appetizers consisting of several salads, sandwiches, and a soup. The dessert menu listed 18 fabulous ice cream desserts and was graced with a watercolor painting by one of the Altos School of Design students.
One day we were invited to a pizza workshop where the chef showed us how to make our own pizzas from scratch. He displayed the ingredients on his worktable for us to admire, then made an impressive pizza and baked it in the new brick pizza oven.
The new pizza oven had been designed by a chef who came to Altos de Chavon from the Hotel Cipriani in Venice, Italy. He had come here expressly to design and install an authentic Italian wood-burning brick oven in Café del Sol.
