Since opening Cielo in Adelaide Arcade a year ago, owner Chaveli Goya and her team have been serving tea, pastries and coffee to a fiercely loyal crowd. But the popularity of the tearoom means if you want to grab something to take away, it can be awkward to stand around and wait while people are enjoying high tea. Beyond that, the makeshift kitchen Goya was cooking in was intimate at best, hence Cielo’s expansion.

“I kind of ran out of space in the office I was cooking in, and so I started looking for a kitchen, because I needed space to start making more orders,” Goya tells Broadsheet. “I ended up having a chat with the [Adelaide] Arcade, and they were like, ‘why don’t you get a spot upstairs?’ So, I took the opportunity.”

Goya soon realised another opportunity made possible by the new kitchen; inspired by cafes and bakeries in Europe, where you often see people cooking in front of you, she thought she’d create something similar – but with a Chilean twist. Enter the sangucheria, or sandwich shop. “My parents and my family have such a big influence… that’s the whole reason why I started my food journey,” she says. “It makes sense to bring back a bit of the tradition. When I opened Cielo, a lot of people didn’t really know about Chilean sweets or pastries… I thought, why not make this opportunity about something that is unfamiliar – to come and experience food the way we have it at home?”

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Goya’s first sandwich – available now – is churrasco, filled with steak, avocado and pebre (Chilean salsa). Next up will be a completo (Chilean hotdog), followed by a chacarero, a pork sandwich. She’ll also be making new pastries and breads each week – all of it from scratch. “I think there’s only one other place in Adelaide that offers the churrasco [sandwich], but they don’t use a house-made bread,” says Goya. “A lot of people that have come, who are Chilean, come and say ‘the bread tastes like it does at home’... We don’t cut corners. It tastes nicer when it’s homemade.”

Goya’s DIY ethos is also reflected in the fit-out. Step into the shop and you’ll be greeted by a large farm table dividing the kitchen from the rest of the space. The atmosphere is relaxed: you’ll spy a shelf with pasta, sandwich spreads and pickles with a pile of books and bags of flour on the floor. At the front of the shop are crates for people to sit and eat their meals on. The interior is simple and straightforward, as a sangucheria is meant to be.

Sangucherias across Latin America also tend to offer more than just sandwiches and Cielo’s shop is no exception. Think shelves stocking butter, antipasto packs, soft drinks and more. “The concept of our shop is like a corner store, where you can find fresh bread, some butter, grab a couple [of] soft drinks… we kind of tried to make it seem like you’re in a corner shop in Chile,” says Goya. “You can grab all of that stuff and have a little picnic somewhere in the city, or just grab a sandwich that we’re offering for that week.”

Cielo’s Sangucheria
Upstairs at Adelaide Arcade

Hours:
Sat 11am-2pm

@cielo.adl