Everything Chocolate
© Casa Cortés P.R. 

EVERYTHING CHOCOLATE

(or how to spend a few delightful hours
in a great new place in town)

San Juan -- Casa Cortés, the courteous house, is welcoming in more than one way.

A visit to its third floor will introduce you to a magnificent collection of Caribbean art that its owner, Ignacio Cortés-Gelpi, president of his family-owned chocolate manufacturing company, decided to share with the whole world.

Seeing so much wonderful art might leave you a little exhausted (though pleasurably so) and perhaps in need of some sustenance for which the remedy is close at hand. In fact, all you
have to do is go down the stairs to the first floor and step into the
perfect place for a pick me up of the most gratifying kind:  a bar
entirely devoted to chocolate. Spirits are welcome too.

This ChocoBar, the only one of its kind in Puerto Rico, is
more than a casual restaurant to enjoy all manner of chocolate and
chocolate infused food or concoction.

In keeping with Mr. Cortés' love of art, he and his wife Elaine hired
one of Puerto Rico's most stylish architects, Evelio Pina, to design
the restaurant and transform it into the truly eye grabbing, hip space
that it is.

Colorful and airy, the restaurant is awash with bright colors, photo
montages on the walls, intriguing decorative pieces that Cortes
commissioned from different artists and a marble topped bar that
is a fitting resting area for any glass holding elixirs of the chocolate
or alcoholic kind. At the entrance, two magnificent armchairs keep
company with a sculpture of a silver cacao tree bearing large gold
pods of chocolate treasure.

Every detail resonates with charm. One wall is entirely covered with
hundreds of old, silver-colored chocolate molds that create a most
intriguing textural effect. In the back of the restaurant, a small
open room celebrates another type of pleasure: reading. Years
ago, the chocolate company used to distribute small story books.
The memory of those little books still remains in the minds of
many people, including an elderly woman who wrote to the
company to thank it for introducing her to the joy of literature.
A large size replica of that letter is now reproduced on one wall.
For those curious about the art of chocolate making, two large
screens run a 20-minute video about the amazing process from
beginning to end.

The menu at ChocoBar ranges from soups and salads, panini
sandwiches and tapas to desserts and sweets. Selections for morning
breakfast include churros, chocolate-filled croissants, chocolate
pancakes in addition to less sweet-toothed choices such as
scrambled eggs and oatmeal.  Prices are moderate.

Whether to rest from an art expedition, while away a bit of leisure
time while drinking hot chocolate in wonderful surroundings, or
find a comfy nook to write or browse the internet on your computer,
ChocoBar invites one to visit and linger.

CHOCOBAR, 210 San Francisco Street old San Juan
787.722.0499 Tue-Sun 8 a.m. to 5 p.m.

Photography by Denise Blasor

When one tugs at a single thing in nature,
he finds it attached to the rest of the world.

-- John Muir

                 ☛   EYE ON PRODUCTS:
                         KIRK'S ORIGINAL COCO CASTILE

This hypoallergenic skin care bar made with all natural coconut oil is
a really pleasant bar of soap to use. It does not irritate and is very
mild on the skin. According to its manufacturer, Kirk's Natural LLC, it
contains no animal by products nor synthetic detergents like sodium
lauryl sulfate. Its ingredients are: coconut soap, water, vegetable
glycerin, coconut oil, and natural fragrance. Price per bar: $1.69.
Available at Supermax stores in section for baby products.

Courtesy of Juliette Blasor

Your silence was effortless and windless,
like the silence of clouds or plants.
All silence is the recognition of a mystery.

-- Vladimir Nabokov

A Night at the Theater

Los Angeles: "Wild in
Wichita" is back in town
and this is the chance for
those who missed it the
last time around to enjoy
this prize-winning Latino
comedy about love
among the young at heart.

In the play, written by
Lina Gallegos,  an
elegant Puerto Rican
woman and an irreverent
Mexican caballero find
themselves together as
the only Latinos in a
nursing home in
Wichita, Kansas. Sparks
fly and well, the rest is a
love story that is sweet
yet feisty.

The play opens tonight, Oct. 11, at The los Angeles Theatre Center
in a production directed by Denise Blasor who stars along with Sal
Lopez, Crissy Guerrero and Alberto de Diego. Through Nov. 3.

For a list of performances, check thelatc.org website.

Los Angeles Theatre Center
512 South Spring St. 213.489.0994

Photography by Denise Blasor

  ©  2013 by Lorraine Blasor  ALL RIGHTS RESERVED

           Art & Chocolate at Casa Cortés
                                    

"Shock & Awe"
by Puerto Rican artist José Morales

Chocolate. Art. On their own, each promises a distinctive sensorial delight. Combine the two and you have a terrific new gallery in San Juan: Casa Cortés.

Casa Cortés holds the private collection of chocolatier Ignacio Cortés Gelpi. This
is not the first time it has been on public display. A few years ago Cortés celebrated the 70th anniversary of his company, Empresas Chocolate Cortés, by lending the collection to the Caguas Art Museum. The exhibit was such a success that he and his wife, with encouragement from different people, including artist Antonio Martorell, decided they ought to share their art with the public on a more permanent basis. And given that chocolate is the family business, why not throw in chocolate into the mix as well?

"Geometry"
Omar Rayo, Colombia

The answer was to transform a three-story building on San Francisco Street, in old San Juan, into a combination choco-bar and art space. The choco-bar, still under construction, occupies the ground floor while the second and third floor are devoted to art.

The hip design of the building's interior, conceived by local architect Evelio Pina, creates a sophisticated background for what is a very exciting, high-grade collection. The works on display, 58 paintings by 51 artists from the Caribbean and Latin America, are but a small part of a larger collection that encompasses paintings, watercolors, drawings, photography, videos, collage, assemblages, boxes, sculptures, ceramics, African tribal art and anthropological pieces. Cortés started collecting as the age of 18. He describes buying art as falling in love. In choosing a piece, "There is a basic, essential element," he said in an interview quoted in the show catalog. "It is when I stand for the first time in front of a piece and immediately some alchemy occurs, it's love at first sight."

"Dialogue 2"
Alexandre Arrechea, Cuba

There are so many good pieces on display that one can easily understand how an art lover could get carried away and keep buying art. The works resonate with humor, pathos, irony,
nostalgia, political awareness. There is sex, and wit, and craft. As you progress from one work of art to another, you get the sense of lively imaginations at play in the fields of color. Two small paintings by Haitian artists stand out amid their more contemporary company: one is an intriguing surrealist night scene from 1965 titled "A Big Meeting with the King of the Night" by Edger Jean Baptiste, and the other, "Bathers at the Stream" by Castera Bazile, is a charming and unusual take on the common painterly theme of women bathing, except that in this case the artist tweaked things a bit: he shows a woman peaking behind a tree at a group of men happily frolicking in the water during a break from work. It was painted in 1951.

Some of the stronger pieces in the collection include the magnificent black and white "Geometry" by Omar Rayo; José Morales' "Shock & Awe," an explosion of big and small dots whose bright colorfulness belies the irony that all those dots are meant to portray bombs exploding in Iraq; "Fantasmas (Ghosts)," by Cuban artist Alexis Leyva Machado, a powerful evocation of the Cuban sea exodus in a subdued palette for maximum effect; the beautiful pointillistic aerial view of a city ("A walk in your city") painted by Gustavo Acosta; Rafael Ferrer's "The Red Bandana," a big, sensual image of two women wading in ocean water that seems in perpetual flux; and "Sighting Series," by Jorge Lopéz Pardo, a large, magnificent drawing on canvas that portrays a solitary house that seem to offer no protection against the surrounding dark world and, in fact, seems to be in the process of unraveling.

"Who Are You?"
 Iván Girona, Puerto Rico

Casa Cortés is located at 210 Calle San Francisco, one block away from Plaza de Armas. It is open Tuesday, Thursday and Saturday from 11 a.m. to 5 p.m. There is no admission charge. Director/ administrator Adelisa Gonzalez-Lugo said that the gallery is available for private functions. For more information, call 787.523.4642.




On Saturday, Casa Cortés will host a guided tour by Antonio Martorell. It starts at 2 p.m.

 ☛A SIMPLE TIP


For those of you who like to bathe

in a tub, this simple advice from Sarah
Busco, founder of Earth Tu Face organic
beauty products: Fill a muslin bag with
oatmeal and infuse in bath water until
the water turns milky.

Says Busco: "It makes your skin soft
and smooth. Also, baking soda. It can be
used for so many beauty tips -- you can
even wash your hair with it."

Photography by Juliette Blasor

Silence and feeling alone can frighten and liberate. It gives
you the space to think and feel but you want to think that there
is the possibility that someone might interrupt you without
it actually happening. When there's no chance of the
solitude being broken, the being alone is of a heavier weight.

Bill Santiago

Copyright ©2013 Lorraine Blasor All Rights Reserved☂