"I spent 30,000 euros on food for the restaurant and now I have to throw it away?"

RipollA fridge full of food and a desert dining room. A kitchen in the dark, empty, and with the background smell of a broth that still boils, even though no one will be able to taste it. A house that has been prepared, with Christmas decorations taken care of down to the last detail, without the foresight that nobody will be able to see it. A hotel reception where the telephone only rings to cancel rooms, and the only traffic in the hall is that of two children who see how the family business is going through a rough patch. The day after the Catalan Government decreed the perimeter lockdown of the Ripollès and the Cerdanya has been the first day of hell for hotel and restaurant owners in the area. A drama that they had known about for months, but thought that Christmas was a unique opportunity to, at least, survive as a business.

This morning, at the Hotel Els Caçadors in Ribes de Freser, while the phone didn't stop ringing to cancel reservations, suppliers were coming in and out bringing food. Among the products: boxes of trout caviar, at a price of 120  the package. "We were assured that even if it was by schedules, we would open", Ramon Pau, the owner, explains. "We had the cakes made, the menus thought out, the tables reserved. We had bought 150 lobsters, lamb, noble meats, caviar. I spent 30,000 euros on food for the restaurant and now I have to throw it away", he wonders in despair.

Els Caçadors is a business that invoices 2 million euros a year, and Ramon explains that they have only been given a subsidy of 1,500 euros. "I've always paid my taxes happily, thinking that if one day something happened to us, they would help us. And it has not been like that, they have despised us, and then they want us to go and vote on February 14". "Yesterday my cooks were crying, and they did it because it's been a very complicated year, it's been a marathon and just when we were reaching the finish line, they threw stones at us". This year, in fact, was the centenary of Els Caçadors. The worst year of the 100 in history. A business that has already been run by four generations. While the boxes of food went in and the last clients of the hotel came out, his two nephews, Juli and Genís, were playing with the computer at the reception. "I'm sure that this won't be the last generation of Els Caçadors", says Ramon proudly.

Decorations in vain

Jesus Coromina has received 30 cancellations today. He has been running a rural tourism management company for three years. Late in the afternoon, the only living being left in the houses were some plants with Christmas decorations that they had put up on Tuesday to welcome customers "with all the love in the world". Jesus' company has lost, overnight, 15,000 euros. Lourdes Oliu has also seen all her investments fall through the cracks. She has recently invested many of her savings in two rural apartments called Cal Rialla, located in Llívia. "Christmas was the premiere, it was the end of a job that took many months", she explains. After the restrictions announced on Tuesday, the opening of her apartments will have to wait, although she explains that she does not know if her economy will be able to do so.

Reservations have been canceled everywhere, and some family meals have been cancelled too. This is the case of Joan Pradell, who this year will not be able to go to Sant Hipòlit de Voltregà (Osona) to eat at his father's wife's house. "I thought we couldn't go any worse", he says. Gerard Serrador won't be able to make Christmas lunch either, as he had planned: "Everything was prepared for eight people. Do we have to tell two relatives that they can't come?" he asks, indignantly. In the Ripollès and Cerdanya, meals have decreased to a maximum of six people.

Christmas is hope

If Christmas brings families to life, it also brings restaurants to life. "Thanks to what we earn during Christmas we manage to get to Easter", explains Toni Oriol, one of the partners of La Solana, a complex that has a hotel, restaurant and campsite, and which is at the entrance to Ripoll. He explains that the Government has left them three times with the food in the fridge: "They have made us close three times from one day to the next, and you can't imagine all the money we have lost and all the food we have thrown away", he describes with indignation. This last time they lost 10,000 euros that they had invested in food. "Really, if the government doesn't help us, I don't know if we'll make it through the winter". La Solana is also a family business from which three families live. Today the kitchen was empty, the fridge was fuller than ever, and their hopes were totally lost.

Most restaurant owners agree that help is needed, such as paying for 70% of the previous year's turnover. These subsidies are demanded by both the Ripollès Regional Council and the Puigcerdà Town Council, which see their restaurateurs as "helpless" after the new restrictions. These are the words of Joaquim Colomer, president of the Regional Council of Ripollès, who adds that he knew about the new restrictions half an hour before the press conference. The Government's response came this afternoon, announcing an injection of 4.7 million euros in aid to the sector.

This Wednesday the center of Ripoll was a desert. In the village, silence, and on the way out, horn noises and many queues. A strong police control did not let anyone pass without justification. All the customers left, and the vans that brought food to the restaurants came in.