A special Saturday lunch

Thanks to the introduction of Lina Amaya, who works at the ACCC Ottawa office, I was introduced to Angela & Daniel (one of Lina's sisters and her husband). They picked me up today and we drove to the outskirts north of Bogota to a place called Chia. There is a very unique restaurant there called "Andres de Res". I have never seeen something like this place and it is absolutely impossible to do it justice with photos, but let me give a try in this post. First of all, here are Angela and Daniel:

They have two wonderful kids ages 3 and 9, and little "Pipo" is quite the character:

The restaurant is a true family place during the day and seems to be quite the party place in the evening. The food is amazing and six hours after this lunch I am still 100 % stuffed! Let me show you a few of the special places to entertain kids during the day (while adults eat and chat):

Kids can do all sorts of crafts from painting to wood-work. They can make music and they can learne new dances. I could not cover it well in photos but hereby a few impressions:

All the staff at the place are students from a local university. Not only are they serving food and drinks, but they also offer kids entertainment, music at the tables, magic tricks, valet parking and more. Daniel told me about some real nice company strategies like that. In Colombia there is a franchise called "Crepes & Waffles" (we need some of those in Canada!). All the staff in those restaurants are single women (many of them single Moms), a strategy offering good work and income potential to women and adding to gender equality in the country. In the photo above a few of the students dressed up and playing all day "live theater" for the patrons of the "Andres de Res". And below a group of musicians entertaining another table (sorry for the poor photo quality):

The place has a large "open kitchen" and I should have made photos of the food as well (sorry Kyla; next time; plus maybe I can get my hands on a few Colombian recipes for Kevin's "Smokin Buddha")

After a few hours in this very special place this is how our group looked like. I think I was totally exhausted of all that great food and entertainment. A very special Saturday lunch indeed!

Thank you Angela and Daniel; muchas gracias!