ALAMESA RESTAURANT 60 MINUTES TO INAUGURATION
Why don't you go ahead and cut the basil that isn't here?
Yes, where do I move them?
-Perfect. -Let's see, let's see.
This is in case people ask for lemon for their Milanese.
So it has to be right.
Today is the inauguration,
we are obviously anxious
to put into practice
everything we practiced for so long.
The day we open the restaurant to the public,
the time for our team
to start serving customers
just like any restaurant.
Mariano... help me out here! How do you set up?
Put them further apart.
I don't know, I forgot, I forgot.
We are all anxious,
but it is critical not to share this anxiety with the team
and while it is inherent to everyone to be a little anxious,
it is very, very important
for us to lower that level of anxiety.
We have a unique restaurant,
we have a unique project, we have a unique system,
and now is the time to start testing it.
OK, Nacho. You are going to be the front waiter
with Belu and Sofi.
Runners, are you ready?
From the deck, table five to table eight.
ALAMESA: NEURODIVERSITY AT THE TABLE
The Alamesa project stems from a question that lingers in the head
of every father and mother of children with disabilities:
What will my child do when she becomes of age?
Come on! Come on!
There you go! Again.
My daughter Julia has PDD
and as you walk alongside a child
with this characteristics through life, you encounter many difficulties.
Suddenly, your daughter is having a bad day at school
and they ask you to take her home right away.
Schoolmates throw a party and she is not invited.
The bus driver does not want your child on the bus
because no one can help should he feel upset.
When my 18-year-old daughter finished school, I thought:
how are we going to tackle the future?
And how are we going to face these challenges?
I realized that I had to create a workspace
where she could live a maeningful life, just like everybody else.
Presentation of the project. Two years to inauguration.
Alamesa is a lifelong empowerment project
and, as such, it began
the first day that the children arrived at the training facility.
Our mission is to set up a restaurant,
but not any restaurant. We will run the best restaurant
among all restaurants.
The Alamesa project
is designed for people with different disabilities,
like autism or developmental delay,
to offer the opportunity to work in a resturant.
Where the food is delicious
and people have fun.
As a matter of fact,
neurodiverse kids are not interested
in not being neurodiverse.
They're not trying to be you or me,
but they're actually trying to be themselves
and live their lives around like-minded people
who share their goals and desires,
among who their behavior doesn't attract unnecessary attention
and where they enjoy the same things than their peers
and things they dislike, displease their peers.
In summary, a world where they essentially feel comfortable.
Alamesa is a project designed from the perspective of the integrated person.
Not from the integrator's.
You'll learn to cook dishes, you'll learn to serve tables.
When they told me about the project,
I was like, "What?" I wasn't expecting that.
I was surprised... For people with disabilities, I mean...
"Is this for real, or is it a drill?"
Little by little, we'll learn how to run our restaurant
that will be just like all other restaurants, but better.
I was very interested
that it needed people like us
to maintain and do everything.
I joined immediately, I really liked it, to be honest.
I know a little about helping in the kitchen,
because I had washed dishes at home before
when my sister and nephew stayed over.
-Very well! -We will be able to apply it here too.
The integrated
need to address significant challenges
to be a part of society.
And the first of those challenges is to understand what they want.
Then, recognizing what people can do,
and helping them do their best on that journey
surrounded by people who understand life in similar terms.
Which is what we all do,
but since this population does not have a voice,
we never hear that they have a desire to live a meaningful life
just like many other minorities living among us.
Team! I want to stress something very important.
This is a job.
And we have to take it as
a job during which we will be serving people.
-Seriously. -Seriously.
I thought: "Well, this is the stage.
where I have to start working, to look for a job,"
and I kind of saw it as the beginning
of all that.
Alamesa's idea is to achieve
the same results as any restaurant, but using a very different strategy.
Because we design and write all strategies
in the team's language
which derives from the way that the kids understand their environment,
so they can achieve the best results, and when you taste the food
it's as good, or even better, than any dish you have ever eaten
anywhere else.
Do you want to weigh?
Or would you rather I choose someone else?
-Do I choose someone else? -Okay.
Okay! Mili, do you want to weigh?
Who volunteers to weigh, then?
Mariano? Good!
Come, Mariano. Very well.
We have a team of facilitators.
The facilitators are people, whether with gastronomic expertise,
or with psychological expertise,
who can work with the team, making their tasks easier,
anf therefore enhance performances constantly.
Juanpa, you're going to be in charge of peeling the garlic now, okay?
And have that ready.
We are, let's say, autistic
or people with autism, which we could say
are, let's say, on the one hand, more shy than other people,
but on the other hand, let's say, we are more
attentive to detail.
The thing about autism is that it's not noticeable.
And so
instead of a person
when they see these difficulties,
instead of saying, "OK. She has autism,"
they say: "This person is really weird."
And sometimes this makes me a little sad
because I am capable of many things.
Once we open the restaurant to the public...
Yes.
What would you like to work on?
Cook.
-Cooking. -Yes.
-And you, Nachito? -Chef!
Chef? Great. You, Facu?
Also, as a cook.
What I enjoy most is, well, cooking, doing something.
And finding a way to make my own money.
-What do you like to cook? -Everything.
Neurodiverse people
work extremely hard
to adapt as much as possible to the world.
But there comes a time
when they have to stop making the effort
and finally find a place that adapts to them.
Well, Alamesa wants to be one of those places.
I would like to wash dishes.
Wash dishes, and
I would like to wait tables. And hand people the menu
so that they know what's on it, what they want to eat,
serve people.
My dream is
to work here
and for us to start serving food to people,
and even if things are difficult for me, to keep trying
until I can master them.
Put the potatoes in one of these bowls, okay?
It's a project where I like to make friends,
I like to cook delicious things.
I made friends... Lots of friends.
And I like this place because this is my family.
Everyone can cook.
Not everyone can create a menu,
but everyone can cook.
Let's take a bit off it,
we're going to remove a bit so that it weighs less.
I used to work in another restaurant
and my job was, let's say, to wash dishes.
They constantly bullied me,
they acted as if I was, let's say,
an idiot. I mean, they did...
The others did things, let's say, at a different speed
but, let's say, in a kind enviornment, let's say,
I can complete all chores perfectly and, let's say, on time, but
how they treated me there, let's say...
The disability that Juan Pablo has is called Asperger Syndrome,
which is a moderate presentation of autism.
Since he was very young, I noticed a different sensitivity
that was noticeable in his eyes.
It is as if he was carrying his heart outside his chest.
Schooling was extremely tough.
They kept closing the doors.
Because he was neither a "bonafide" disabled child,
nor fully "normal".
So,
it was devastating and heartbreaking for him,
and for both of us, as a family.
It's devastating not to have a place of belonging,
and the doors kept closing. Even once we found a place,
Juan Pablo suffered bullying.
The kids were not ready to tolerate someone different.
A boy who doesn't play soccer,
a boy who does not engage in rough physical games.
At school, I was bullied a lot, I was mistreated a lot,
because, let's say, mainly
let's say, my speaking pace
that sometimes let's say, I stutter,
sometimes I repeat words, and all that.
And for those reasons they bullied me, because they did not know, let's say,
that I am neurologically, let's say, different from them.
And once I told him, when they were saying something outrageous
about his physical appearance:
Didn't the person who said that to you look at himself in the mirror?
And he answered: "Mom, you can't see that person's heart.
He says this because of something that hurts him,
it's not his true self,
I'm not going to give that back to him."
It has been very painful for Juan Pablo to grow up,
with his heart exposed, outside his chest.
Typically, neurodiverse individuals
arrive quite battered.
They come with a story of low self-esteem,
of feeling different, and less than others.
Here, in addition to feeling chosen,
we want them to feel loved and respected.
When they called from Alamesa,
and they said that they wanted to have a meeting,
Juan Pablo was reluctant,
and when he returned,
he told me, "Mom,
the person who interviewed me
knew how to deal with a person with Asperger's."
You must focus on five points.
And he went on to list the five points
which had to do with a non-strident decoration.
Presenting things one at a time
without going off on tangents,
confirming that Juan Pablo had understood
what was being said to him.
Cordial treatment
and a smile.
Tell me, why do you want to work in a restaurant?
I went, let's say, to places where, let's say, they treated me badly,
and when I heard, let's say, that I was going to be treated well here,
I was surprised and said to myself: "I have to take this job no matter what."
As a matter of fact, I have difficulties and internal struggles, let's say,
when it comes to dealing with people and all that.
But still, when I learned that they are all, let's say, really good people
after seeing the difference
from what I experienced in other groups compared to this.
The truth is, let's say, I consider them like family.
And in Alamesa, what would you like to work as?
I really don't know...
I would say cooking.
Cooking?
I can handle it, let's say.
It was the first time
that Juan Pablo felt
that there really was
a planned effort targetted
to respect and care.
ALAMESA RESTAURANT 30 MINUTES TO INAUGURATION
We are about to open our doors,
and I'm pretty excited
that people will taste our food.
Come on, Gaspi.
These were two years of trial and error.
Two years of adjustments. "No, look, too much salt here"
or "let's adujst the amount of salt a little"
or "this is not the right amount."
These were two years,
let's say,
of great fun, but also of very hard work
adjusting, testing.
Are we on time?
-Yes -Okay.
The most important thing for today is to keep ourselves
totally professional and...
It often happens in large groups that there are fights and all that,
and what cannot happen, is conflict. There must be a lot of camaraderie.
And we are good at that.
MEETING WITH THE PARENTS TWO YEARS BEFORE THE INAUGURATION
Hello. How are you? Nice to meet you.
-Hello. -Sebastian, nice to meet you.
-How are you? -I'm Barbi's mom.
-Go ahead. -Thank you.
In restaurants, stress
peaks during service hours.
So, to eliminate that stress factor,
we put together a plan in which food is cooked
asynchronically
and, therefore, everything is ready and simplified
to feed eighty people
in an environment as stress-free as possible.
The process is,
basically to dissagregate the menu
into small steps
so team members can successfully complete their task.
Each of the ingredients arrives at the restaurant from our suppliers
and upon arrival
it is assigned to the appropriate dish and its respective color.
For example, all ingredients to cook a dish, for example, salmon,
are now stored in orange flasks.
Even served on an orange plate.
Such organization
allows team members to know that they are working on that dish.
So, if you are a person who cannot read,
by looking at the colors,
if you can distinguish colors, you know which dish you are cooking,
and which dish a customer requested. There are countless examples like this.
We use no knives and no fire,
so no one can burn or cut him or herself.
We take all precautions to the limit
for the kid with the greatest level of difficulty.
There are thousands of these threads, like those that
make you believe a magician is flying even though
you know it is a trick and ignore how the hell he is doing it.
All these are integrated into Alamesa's strategy.
In the end, what ends up happening is that,
since there is so much attention to processes,
Alamesa is a restaurant that is far above average.
And, Alamesa is an environment
where everybody can create bonds with each other.
Just as we create them in our lives.
We assembled a group of more than 30 families
that never had the opportunity
to get together with other parents and chat.
They never noticed that "the things happening to us"
are faced by other families,
that other families face similar challenges.
And sharing this makes life better, a lot easier, doesn't it?
Alamesa is a program where no applicant is asked:
"Can you cook?," "Can't you cook?"
What does interest us
is having parents who are committed to the project,
and congratulate their children, and collaborate
in bolstering their enthusiasm
and recognize them as adult individuals heading towards
a more independent life.
Alamesa!
We do not want to open a restaurant
where people come to feel good with themselves because they are helping
individuals with disabilities.
We want a restaurant where people come to enjoy a great meal
and participate in the gastronomic experience
because they like it.
To tackle this objective, which is such an ambitious bet,
we called upon a renowned chef. And this chef
had to accomplish a very difficult thing,
which is to asimilate a completely different paradigm
to the typical gastronomic perspective.
Within the world of gastronomy,
Alamesa is a revolution and a challenge. Why?
In the kitchen, there's always
chaos, nerves,
lots of adrenaline.
We need a steak, a fried fish.
Kitchen is: "Go, go!"
"That sirloin steak, how many minutes does it take to make?"
It's screaming, chaos that is always present.
So what do we do?
And so, organizing properly is very important from the beginning.
For chaos not to happen, what do we have to do?
It's down there, like this.
There and you dump it like that.
We began a constant negotiation
between the ideas
of people that had never been
part of a gastronomic project,
and someone who is in gastronomy,
and high-level gastronomy, for more than 20 years.
So, our role as advisors was
trying to balance and support the management team,
on how to maintain the two axis
of achieving an incredible customer experience,
with excellent service and delicious food,
while integration works
and, importantly, workers have a great time.
In addition to leading the Alamesa project,
I was in the United States for many years specializing in pediatrics,
and later infectious diseases.
In 2003, after many years of living abroad,
I returned to Argentina to work on respiratory diseases,
maintaining my position as a professor at the university in the United States.
Contrary to what you would imagine,
Alamesa resembles a research laboratories,
because we rapidly learned that restaurant kitchens
are very stressful, they are very intense.
In fact, they are exactly the opposite
of the environment in a research laboratory,
which is where I come from.
A research laboratory is a quiet, calm place,
where everything is planned,
everything is laid out,
and therefore, stress is minimal during experiments.
And Alamesa is similar. We planned a lot of small tricks,
which are imperceptible to the customer's eye,
and allow us to achieve the same results, but using a diferent route.
In science, there are proofs of principle.
Projects, programs, experiments,
that allow you to demonstrate that certain goal is possible
Alamesa's proof of principle,
is to create and open a restaurant in an upper middle class neighborhood
and compete against restaurants
where people expect a very high level of service.
LAS CANITAS DISTRICT, A YEAR TO INAUGURATION
We found a place
in rather poor condition
and we did a whole reconditioning job,
which took quite a while,
not only to make the place as beautiful as possible,
but also to align it
with the production strategies of Alamesa.
It had to be simple,
it had to be pleasant
and that's why we thought of a very bright white box,
but at the same time, with many touches of color,
and strategic clues that make it very special.
And we also decided that everything that had to do
with plants and greenery
be included inside. I mean,
we kind of let nature in.
We needed,
basically, to put together a kitchen
that had the set up necessary to allow:
the most comfortable design
for those with major motor challenges,
where they could be comfortable
with the lighting, sound and noise.
That is why the room of the ovens
is soundproofed.
The kitchen is the heart of the project,
and it occupies
almost 70 percent of the space.
And at the end, you can find
the area for relaxation and rest,
open to the garden,
where we set up the room for relaxation and socializing.
One of the great innovations
that I think sets this place apart
from any other gastronomic establishment, is the rest area.
Very pleasant, very comfortable, and it not only serves as a rest area
after they finish their chores,
but also serves as a place that, if they want to stay here
after they finish their workday, they can.
Everything has to be a complete experience
where customers and the team
feel in a place
where everything is thought out,
and all necessary things are included.
We thought the name Alamesa summed up very well
what we wanted to communicate with the restaurant,
from the point of view of how we felt about the restaurant.
When the name had been chosen,
we realized that Alamesa was truly
owned by the young people who work here.
Therefore,
people who helped us with branding suggested
that our workers themselves
participate in the design of the logo.
Well,
we want you to design the logo.
Each one of you, letter by letter.
All the letters of the word "Alamesa".
Do the letters have to be big or do they have to be...?
Or, I don't know, printed? How should it be done?
However you want,
whatever you think.
For us, it's important that Alamesa
has a little piece of each of you, even in the logo.
You are responsible for every task in the restaurant.
Well, you're also going to create the logo
that will be displayed at the door.
Can it be done in a draft? Like letter by letter,
with the name of the restaurant?
You're doing it on cardboard.
You can do as many as you want.
Explode your creativity.
-Do you want to be president? -Bravo, grandpa!
Grandpa, grandpa!
-Well, then you're going to do... -Let's see if I...
Okay. And you can decorate this one, okay?
I don't know how to decorate it. I'll just write "Alamesa"
However you think it'll turn out best.
In itself, doing this is not my favorite activity,
but if it is mandatory, well, I'll do it.
Yeah. The sheet of paper, the pencils, the sharpener, it's not my thing.
It lacks a bit of color, doesn't it?
No?
Our concept of Alamesa is to always talk about simplicity.
Alamesa is what it is.
So, the end result is this handwritten logo
made by each and everyone of the team members
"Alamesa".
We made a typographic selection,
where there is one letter per person.
That way, they're all integrated, all there, all embodied.
An idea that I had from the beginning,
was the divergent,
the disruptive,
combined in such a way
that ends up being beautiful and effective.
The logo
reflects that.
Let's see what your colleagues think.
Beautiful, beautiful,
-I love it. -Very clean.
I like to draw,
so I enjoy drawing the letters.
Being neurodivergent has advantages and disadvantages
Our brain works differently, therefore,
there are things that are also easier for us, so it makes me happy when in...
Among all those difficulties,
talent comes out and people say,
"You are
very, very talented."
Here we made several,
but my personal favorite,
is obviously this one.
I put a lot of colors there, which...
Which basically symbolizes
the union, diversity.
Let's see, what do you think?
-It looks good. -You, Cami?
I liked all the letters.
-Do you like them all? -Yes, very good.
It gives me a lot of confidence,
trust,
peace,
and above all, inspiration.
Cesar, which one would you choose?
The one above the pink letters, that one.
I am happy, for us to be happier.
More creative.
We are a very nice group of boys and girls,
we get along really well.
The truth is that,
I feel like I have more confidence in myself here.
And above all, I am in a program
with friends who have
a life like mine.
Since Alamesa started, I began to notice
certain changes in Cata's attitudes and personality.
Since her physical appearance
is quite striking, so to speak,
we often felt on display,
the focus of gossip, or...
Or reactions, for example, faces of disgust.
And it was a huge effort
on her part, since she was very young.
I took her to the square and
kids would say horrible things to her and she would smile back at them
and she'd try to win everyone's heart,
but it was pretty cruel too.
And I think Cata learned to demonstrate
who she is, so that is why
she was so successful in her school integration.
Because, from the start she was pure love,
pure joy, positivism.
I think the many surgeries she had,
which were a lot and quite complicated,
life-threatening in some cases,
made her get stronger and stronger.
instead of making her fell smaller, they made her feel bigger
For cooking,
to later work in a restaurant called Alamesa.
Her school friends are spectacular human beings,
they love her with all their hearts.
But for Cata, I think it means an effort
to become similar to others or to become like others.
The girls
have other concerns, they have another way of thinking.
In Alamesa,
happiness comes from feeling completely understood,
equal.
I don't think she has to try that hard.
My friends at school liked me, loved me.
I had a very nice group of friends,
but when I actually realized one day,
and even before knowing Alamesa,
I said: "How nice it would be to have people
I can talk to calmly and who can understand,
what you say, what you tell them,
what you do."
It makes me feel very good. And the truth is, I'm very happy.
I feel more at ease. I feel like
this is more comfortable for me, being able to understand,
because they all speak the same language.
That's what I like the most.
LAS CANITAS DISTRICT, FOUR MONTHS TO INAUGURATION
The day that kitchen utensils and appliances arrived,
the cooking station, etc.,
the premises were quite advanced,
and we decided to invite the team to visit
with us witnessing the progress as
the restaurant comes close to being ready.
This is going to be the restaurant.
Applause.
Now you're going to go in, and see it for the first time.
-It's still under construction. -Yes, yes.
Yes? So you're going to see people working
-for a few days. -Ready to explore the place
-where you're going to work? -Yes!
Come on! Okay...
-Come in, follow Sebas. -Let's go.
It was very nice to see their faces
when they realized that everything we had been talking about,
like their future workplace, was now a reality.
Our kitchen, the kitchen of Alamesa,
has different areas.
Over there on the wall...
There will be a screen there, showing tables,
which one is served, which one needs service. What food they ordered...
It is very important for the team
to assimilate and internalize
the rooms, noises,
because after one to two years of work in a training facility
they were already very familiar with that space.
But here the dynamics are very different.
Here, the rooms are for real, they are the areas where
they will have to work every day.
We are in the rest area,
this is going to be the area where you'll be able to come in and relax,
there won't be any customers.
Here is the place where you can relax, be quiet,
clear your head.
-All together. -Not all together.
You will be using the room in small groups.
-Are you going to put beds or chairs? -No. Not beds!
Not beds.
One of the worst things you can do, is surprise them.
Changing their workplace without warning.
Therefore, making sure they have time to process the move,
visiting the restaurant in advance is very important
I loved coming,
I am very excited
-and I'm willing to work hard. -Great.
My whole family asks me, sometimes they drive me crazy,
they tell me: "When are you going to open?" "I don't know."
-Are you anxious? You really want... -Yes.
-to start. -Yes, yes.
-Who else? -It is different now
seeing the place. Before,
it could be something, but now
it's much more rigid, the subject is, so...
Things got serious.
Things got serious, yes.
Julia. What do you want to say, Juli?
I like the new Alamesa.
Did you like the new Alamesa? Great.
New Alamesa? Yes.
I liked this workplace.
I'm going to work here with you, with all my colleagues.
And I am very happy to have met everyone.
I love you all very much.
And we love you too. We are so happy to have met you.
We know that Alamesa
is, in some ways, a project that resembles a birth.
Once it's born, it's born.
And you cannot turn the clock back.
Until then, we scheduled a series of tests
that allow us to reach the opening day
as safely as possible.
So far, in our previous kitchen, we trained
without any rush. We had time.
But we are already close to the opening,
so we have to practice more and more
how to serve customers.
-As if it were a drill. -Exactly.
During these months, we trained
with unlimited time to complete the tasks
that is to say, team members could cook at their own pace.
But now that we are here in the restaurant,
we're under another type of pressure,
with certain deadlines that we have to meet.
In today's drill,
-what we will be practicing is service. -Okay, let's get ready.
And we hired Agustina,
who is our souschef and will be with us all the time
helping ensure the quality of the dishes
how preparations should be made.
Okay guys, now we're going to make
the chicken sandwich and the salmon Milanese.
Let's time it, and next time,
we'll try to improve. Okay?
Okay, let's get started: 3, 2, 1, go.
The big difference is that after customers sit down at the table
and place the order, the goal is that in 15 minutes
we bring out the meals.
They have to take out of the refrigerators
that are under their countertops, the plates.
These plates have to be held by the oven operator,
it goes in the oven, and when it comes out, it goes to the plate-handler.
All of these mechanics are what we're seeing in this exercise.
First this, then salmon, okay?
Each of the plates have a symbol
resembling the peace sign.
This allows the children
to put the protein in the large area under the sign
and in the two lateral areas are the side dishes.
This goes in a cart, okay?
The carts have letters representing the positions
of the people who placed the order.
This strategy decreases the stress level
solving table service.
This project is unique worldwide
and there are not many examples.
So, every day something new happens.
Totally silent,
with movement as minimal as possible,
and dishes that come out on time and delicious.
How do we do it? That's our mission.
ALAMESA RESTAURANT 15 MINUTES TO INAUGURATION
I want to congratulate you all.
We all grew up,
you learned to cook,
you learned to be waiters.
You learned to be receptionists,
and today is the day to make it all worth it.
Finally,
after so much time practicing,
it's time to really start serving people.
We're going to have fun, we're going to do things the best we can,
and every day will get better and better.
And in the meantime, we will continue to be a group of friends
that have a good time,
that go out, that have fun,
that work together
and enjoy everything we've been doing
for so long, guys. So girls, boys...
-Let's go! -Okay!
Good evening, welcome to Alamesa.
-Thank you. -Do you have a reservation?
-We have a reservation -Can I have your name?
Liliana.
-Are there four of you? -Yes.
Well, here is my colleague Juli,
she will accompany you to your table.
-Table 11. -Thank you.
Shall we start?
-Agus, green light? -Yes, let's go.
-Let's get started. -Let's get started. There's people.
I need three milangas and a salmon.
The most important thing at this moment, at the inauguration,
is to repeat
what we've been doing all this time in training,
and in the drills,
and that our staff
keeps working
with the same tranquility and the same happiness
that we've been working with this whole time.
Two Milanese and two salmons.
I remember when we started with all this work,
since
a year and a half, almost two years, since we started with all this, and
instead of friends, I entered a family.
I need that pastrami, let's go.
Carefully.
All right, number seven.
I didn't know anything about gastronomy before,
all I could cook was noodles,
a salad, a sandwich, or a cake.
And we have a lot of fun.
In the kitchen and... And we are very happy here.
Is there a salmon in there?
When you sit down to watch the team
work in the restaurant,
it's really impressive to see the choreography.
How those responsible for different tasks come and go
and the magic stems from us preparing everything for so long
as if it were a long and repetitive theater performance.
Alamesa does not have a different inauguration
of what the following days of work will be like,
it just starts working.
It's going to have bugs, and things that need to be improved.
And I always keep in mind,
that this is a long-term bet.
The inauguration is over,
everything went perfectly.
Since the computer system that'll handle everything that is the dispatch
is not fully ready,
we had to do the dispatch by ourselves, with our own hands.
We had to run a little and we resisted,
we are ready to go to war and win.
I always say
Alamesa has already been successful. And if one day it has to be reformulated
to continue, then we'll do it.
But we have shown
that this could be done.
That this project, whether it's a restaurant for 32 people,
or a pharmacy with ten people,
or a supermarket of 50 people,
or a four-person business, it can be done.
This project,
for us, is something very special.
He sketched out ideas,
and told me: "Mom, I want to work in a restaurant."
So, the exercise
was to accompany him to write it, as a wish.
The truth is that right now it's like...
Well, dreams do come true.
It makes him have a place in the family where he also goes to work,
and this really empowered him
in a very, very nice way.
What it means for someone to be trusted.
We've lived very enthusiastically this project from the very beginning.
The pain of seeing your child without the opportunity
of having a job, and well, having this come up, is incredible.
So,
thank you.
Now,
I'm going to tell you
what Alamesa is,
and everyone sees it.
Alamesa is a party.
Alamesa is more social life.
Alamesa is empowerment.
Real work.
Alamesa has to transform us all.
It has to transform the kids' lives, your lives, our lives
and, if possible, the lives of all customers.
Alamesa is going to be them.
From day one until now,
how do you feel now?
-Good. -Good.
-What did you find here? -Friendship.
Friendships.
What else? What else? Did you find other things?
-Teamwork. -Teamwork.
It's your chance
to show that something different can be done.
They always tell you that it can't be done, that it doesn't make sense.
And yes, it does make sense,
because if you change the life of just one of the guys,
you already did it.
I loved it, I'm proud
that I was offered the opportunity to come and work
and prove that I can work,
do activities,
and earn my money. I like it.
Here I quickly learned many things,
and I loved meeting you...
All of you. And Mili.
It's your turn, Mili.
At first, I felt that...
I felt like I didn't fit in, like I wasn't going to find my place.
I'd tell myself that I wasn't going to be able to make it
I have never found more support than here.
Never.
Lu, what did you learn?
I learned teamwork...
And cooking. I got to know many flavors.
You know, at home we always eat the same thing.
I made friends, and met a lot of people.
-I'm very happy to be here. -How great!
Over time, I began to feel
this feeling that I'd never had, of integrity.
Before it was like...
I...
I am in a group of people
they don't reject me,
but I don't feel completely integrated either,
but in this group, I feel like
a little more cared for, like...
If I need something,
someone always notices it and offers it to me,
and they're all very empathetic colleagues,
and well, that's very nice.
Juli, did you like Alamesa?
-Alamesa... yes. -Do you want to keep coming?
-Coming, yes. -And to see...
Great.
how this has changed Julia's life.
How it expanded her
friends, communications, connections,
and her desire to come here to work...
That is what moves me. I do this for them.
That is the truth. And since friends
around Julia
have become such an integral part of her life,
I do this for them.
First prize for the best colleague.
-Cata! -Cata!
-Yes!
It's obvious they're having a good time.
They started going to the movies and hanging out together in their homes.
They began to have, many of them, their own social life,
which, for the first time, was not being managed by their parents.
My dream is to work in gastronomy.
Being able to cook more meals,
have a job. Be able to marry my boyfriend.
Be able to start a family.
Since I was bullied a lot at school,
and well, now...
Being here, meeting so many people who love each other,
and there is a lot of camaraderie.
Well, I learned,
in the sense of learning, let's say, that
the world is not so dark.
How nice.
One, two, three...
Alamesa!
Very good!
Bravo!
ALAMESA: NEURODIVERSITY AT THE TABLE
ONE MONTH AFTER OPENING ITS DOORS, ALAMESA'S RESERVATIONS WERE FULLY BOOKED
FOR MORE THAN 4 MONTHS, HAD OUTSTANDING REVIEWS FROM COSTUMERS,
AND ALMOST 100 THOUSAND FOLLOWERS ON SOCIAL MEDIA.