The Can Caragol bakery closes after almost a century: "I really want to be able to sleep in the evenings"

Sineu15 Esperança Street in Sineu will no longer smell like bread. The Forn de Can Caragol is closing. After almost a century, the original Moorish oven, the establishment's jewel, will no longer bake bread for at least some time. Biel Alomar, great-grandson of Miquel Torelló Romera, the baker who opened the establishment in 1929, is closing the bakery, tired of working at night, on weekends, and on holidays. "I like the work and it's not arduous, but the hours are what they are and..."

Today, Friday, November 6th—as reported the day before yesterday by Díngola—is the last day that Biel Alomar bakes bread, the last day that Isabel Coll attends to customers behind the counter. The goodbyes from loyal customers are constant. "And now? And where is Biel going? And are you closing on Friday? And will someone take it over?..."

"We have been running the bakery for 14 years," explains Alomar. "This establishment was founded by my great-grandfather, then my grandfather took it over. Later, my parents didn't run it, but it kept operating; our family had it rented out. And when those people left, we took it over. The bakery has been operating since 1929; it has been open uninterrupted for almost 100 years," points out the baker.

Alomar explains, "I was dedicated to sewing; I had an upholstery and nautical upholstery workshop, and before that, I used to do alterations for clothing stores like Mango or Springfield. But with the 2008 crisis, everything stopped, and it coincided with the retirement of those who were running the bakery. We took it over, and I learned the trade from a worker who stayed on here."

Why are you leaving it?

"We are closing tomorrow -for today-. Why am I leaving it? Simply, for quality of life. It's not that things are going badly or that there is no work, because the business is working, but it is a very grueling job: you have to work every week, in the summer I can't do anything and I have no social life. I work very hard split shifts: I get up at one in the morning, I do the shift until eight or nine, then I go back to rest a little, and in the afternoon again".

"A maintenance technician position has come up at the Conservatory. I have been preparing for it this last year and I did the university entrance exam for seniors. Now I am 58 years old and I have decided to make a life change. I am very eager to be able to sleep regularly at night", he points out.

"The intention with the premises is to rent it out. It belongs to the family, to my mother, and she wants to keep renting it out, it interests her that it continues to be a bakery, since it has a lot of tradition in the town and it makes her happy. The place has many options and nowadays many bakeries are being converted and serve coffee and drinks, we'll see", he tells us just next to an open small staircase that goes down to the mouth of the traditional Moorish wood-fired oven, an essential element always present at Can Caragol. "It's one of those where you make the fire inside and then you move it to one side", he comments proudly to clarify that "bread in a wood-fired oven is more work and more complicated than electric ones, but the way bread comes out of this oven there is no comparison, nothing like it".

Can Caragol has a reputation within Sineu; it is not for nothing that the ensaimadas or the potato cakes are in demand. But also the breads, whether they are made with organic cereals or not. "The wood-fired oven gives you characteristics that you don't find in the others".

Today, the lifelong customers of Can Caragol are left orphaned of bread and kindness, of a familiar and well-known good morning. Today, another iconic business closes; today, a part of the intangible heritage of Sineu closes. It will be like this if no one remedies it. One must have hope, because on Carrer de l'Esperança everything is possible.