La Uribeña Microbrewery [Uribelarrea - Buenos Aires]

Uribelarrea is a tiny country town located about 120 kilometres southwest of Buenos Aires. It was founded in 1890 and bears the name of its founder, Miguel Nemesio de Uribelarrea.

Walking around this town is like stepping back in history. Sean, my parents and I came here on the last Sunday of our visit home before we returned to Dallas.

Train station

We visited the old train station, a brick building that dates from 1892 (quite old for New World standards!), the main square, the church -which is located across from the square in the typical Argentinean country town layout and built in memory of the founder’s wife-, and the Escuela Agrotécnica Salesiana Don Bosco -an agricultural school run by Salesian priests where we bough cheese, dulce de leche and various preserves, like blackberry and tangerine, all made on the premises.

We stopped for lunch at a restaurant housed in a beautifully preserved building. The main draw of this place is that it is actually a microbrewery. Yes, they brew the same ice cold beer we enjoyed after traipsing around on a hot summer day. We tried all three kinds: lager (very drinkable), stout (smooth) and India pale ale (hands down, my favourite).

India pale ale, stout and lager

The menu at Cerveceria Artesanal La Uribeña (as it’s called in Sapnish) is restricted to their two specialities: homemade pasta and picada. The pasta dishes looked and smelled delicious but none of us had pasta, so I can’t really say. But the picada was something else. Just the memory of that wonderful selection of cold cuts makes my mouth water. A picada is the Argentinean version of Spanish tapas. It usually consists of an assortment of cold cuts and cheeses, bread, peanuts, olives and pickled veggies. The kind and amount of ingredients vary according to personal taste and wallet size.

Our picada had liver sausage (leberwurst), bondiola (an Italian style pork sausage), two different kinds of salami, longaniza (pork sausage flavoured with aniseed), Cracow sausage, cheese, olives, pickles and soft white bread. Everything was incredibly fresh, sourced locally (probably made round the corner!) and very tasty.

Picada de campo

Cerveceria artesanal La Uribeña

Valeria de Crotto 901. T: (02226) 49-3001 / 3101.

Uribelarrea – Provincia de Buenos Aires

Opens Thursdays to Sundays. Cash only.

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