Punta del Este Hotel Scene: Garz�n

January 18, 2008 at 9:05 AM | by MattyC | 2 Comments

Once again Matt Chesterton has returned to HotelChatter. All week long he will be schooling us on the hot hotel scene in Punta del Este, Uruguay. Any tips, suggestion or questions? Send 'em our way and we'll have Matt answer them for ya. For now, sit back and enjoy.

We end our seagull's-eye swoop along the Uruguayan coast by going a few kilometers inland, to the wee town of Garz�n.

Garz�n doesn't look like a vacation resort. It doesn't even look like a town. If it had a Wikipedia entry, we would link to it. But, like all communities in Latin America that can be placed somewhere on the spectrum between hamlet and city, Garz�n has a town square, a church, a general store, and a thriving stray dog scene.

It has also has a police station which must be doing a pretty good job, because there is no crime. Oh, and one more thing. Garz�n is home to one of the best and most exclusive lodgings in Uruguay.

El Garz�n Hotel & Restaurant is owned by Francis Mallmann, Argentina's most celebrated chef, who, inevitably, is now in the accommodation business. (Which isn't to say he's sheathed all of his knives: apart from the restaurant at Garz�n, which is open to all comers, Mallmann also owns Patagonia Sur, in Buenos Aires, and 1884, in Mendoza.)

Mallmann has a quality you don't find much in hoteliers: pleasantness. Not only that, he's a scholar, a gentleman, and a romantic. His poetry collection greatly exceeds his cookbook collection. He smokes good cigars. He likes camping and mucking around on his Blackberry. He dresses like John Wayne dressing up as Oscar Wilde. He would make a good character on Lost.

Our opinion of Mallmann is no way -- in no way -- influenced by the fact that he invited This Reporter, along with Mrs This Reporter, for a wonderful three-night stay just before Christmas, during which he plied TR and Mrs TR with some of the best food and wine (the latter courtesy of his partner, Finca La Anita) they have ever ingested-slash-imbibed. All the gold in all the world could not buy our favor. A few more portions of that chicken in a salt crust, on the other hand...

That's all on Punta del Este for the moment. Any questions, gripes, garlands, or brickbats, fire them thisaway.

2 Comments

Return to » Punta del Este Hotel Scene: Garz�n

PuntaLugano
HotelChatter Member

Re: Punta del Este Hotel Scene: Garz�n
I've never met Mallmann but I've read numerous interviews with him and articles about him, and I've watched him on the Gourmet Channel in Spanish several times. He does seem like the kind of guy you'd like to spend time with, and he's obviously not at all pretentious -- completely self-deprecating would come closer. His place in Garzon is very, very pleasant, and the place he had for three decades in Jose Ignacio was legendary. All that said, I must add that one has to be very careful when he is not on scene to oversee the cooking. I had that chicken cooked in salt one day at Garzon and it was dry as dust -- but a lot more expensive!

January 18, 2008 at 3:13 PM

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MattyC
HotelChatter Contributing Editor

Re: Punta del Este Hotel Scene: Garz�n
That's a very good point. We shouldn't get TOO soft-focus about Mallmann. His restaurants are thumpingly expensively. Last time I checked, the three course set menu in Patagonia Sur was priced at 200 pesos -- without wine. That's 70 US dollars a head. He told me a good story about Los Negros (the legendary place in Jose Ignacio PuntaLugano alluded to). One of his tricks was to sit at table close to the entrance, sucking on a cigar while carving a leg of pata negra ham that he'd imported from Spain. Without fail, everyone entering the place would ask him what he was carving. You don't want to know, Mallmann would reply. No, we really do want to know, the guests would ask. Ok, I'll tell you, Mallmann would say, but you'll regret asking. It's pata negra ham -- a truly exquisite bit of charcuterie but immorally expensive. You'll never be able to afford it. And, of course, everyone ordered it.

January 18, 2008 at 6:08 PM

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