I think you may have misinterpreted what I posted. I never indicated that you should compromise in any way or form, or offer chips, salsa, and nachos as part of your menu. You must have seen that somewhere else.

I was just offering you my experience as an investor, whose specialty is restaurants because of the huge potential return.

I have no idea how Spanish educated the San Diego population is, but I do know that a restaurant we bought in Miami for a song, which was offering Spanish cuisine, had failed, because of their name. We re-opened it with a name change and a logo, and sold it for a 450% profit in less than 18 months, since it was a wild success. We never spent one nickel on furnishing changes, and kept the same chefs.

But that was Miami, I have no idea about SD. It may be completely different.

Wolf

Wolf, I do appreciate your suggestions, your wisdom on the subject and your great humor on the board...Let's hope that the name sticks, the place is packed and the advertising works!!! WE are really excited about this venture, and are well aware of the big gamble the restaurant business can be!!! so anyway, thank you for your input, and keep it coming!!!

As far as the menu selection, We are having natillas!!!!, also, bacalao, piquillos (stuffed), and some of the other suggestions here are great...
I suggested fabada, but mi esposo states the morcilla is a hard one for Americans to swallow, and it's a bit heavy for S.D.....
Thanks you guys, again, for your support and ideas!!!

Hi Laduque,
My husband's family has morcilla on their Spanish restarant's menu and I was very suprised about the number of people ordering it(many for the first time because they were simply curious). I think the kind of customers that go to a Spanish reataurant are more open to trying something cultural and different than the norm.

Wolf--I was the one who mentioned nachos...no te preocupes...

My menu suggestions are the following:
-TORTILLA (of course...and make it real!)
-Cocido: lentejas, garbanzos, alubias, fabas, etc.
-A REAL ensalada rusa...the one at Gran Tapa blows chow! (my apologies)
-With all the seafood: Gambas al ajillo, bacalao, and of course seafood-only paella.
-I'm sure SD would love a real batch of patatas bravas, some cool gazpacho in the summer and other various tapas like pincho moruño, etc.

Please e-mail me with opening day information ASAP so I can make plans...I'm really looking forward to being there!!!

Yes, definitely tortilla...and with your proximity to the sea, any seafood dish (CaliBasco's suggestions made my mouth water). I love patatas bravas (I still have an old copy of Bon Apetit magazine with an AMAZING recipe for those) and also would enjoy seeing Spanish cheeses on a menu.

Our local tapas place doesn't have ANY Spanish beer...can it be found out in California? They serve Peroni (that's the name of that Italian beer, right?) and various others.

If you really want to shake up some diners, you could serve traditional sopa castellana. I love it, but it's odd to look at, what with that egg sitting in it. But maybe soups wouldn't work in San Diego.

Yum! What fun to think about all these great foods!

We are definitely going to have traditional tortilla, made fresh throughout the day!!yummy!
The only beer that we can import is the one from Granada, "Alhambra" I think is the name, because of the high alcohol content in most Spanish beer, we are unable to import it here..I would love to have cruz campo on tap!

You can find more menu ideas at http://www.columbiarestaurant.com/menu.html , the menu listings for the Columbia Restaurants in Florida. There are 8 of them, and the first was opened in 1905. There are some Cuban influences, but many more typical Spanish dishes too.

Tara

[ 05-16-2001: Message edited by: MadridMan ]

How about "Sabor?"

Just a few thoughts:

• Whatever you do, please, don't put flamenco / bullfighting things for your restaurant decoration. Spain is much more than this and you should help your customers to discover what the real Spain is like.
• I didn't know people gave such importance to the name of the place. I was really surprised when I read about Wolfgang restaurant having success only by changing the name. But, if that the way it is in the US, think twice before you take a decision.
• For me, the most important thing would be the quality of the food and making sure you really offer real Spanish food. One of the secrets of our cuisine is olive oil. I guess it must be very expensive to import and to cook with it but it is one of the most important things.
  
  Also make sure your cook is Spanish or has been working in Spain and knows how to cook Spanish food. I remember a Spanish restaurant in Bath (England) serving food that doesn't have anything to do with what we have here at our homes. (BTW, its name - "Manuel's" - is also a bad one in my opinion).
• What about having "thematic nights"?. I don't know which is the day of the week when most people go out for dinner there. I guess Fridays or Saturdays. Well, you could have a "noche celta" with some nice songs by Carlos Nuñez, Hevia, Cristina Pato, Luar Na Lubre and other well-known bands. Or a "noche flamenca" with the most recent flamenco (flamenco-pop music) bands (Ketama, José El Francés, Niña Pastori, Navajita Platea, etc). Obviously, the food on those nights should agree with the music.
• The Spanish tourist office there in the US should be able to provide you with posters from Spain for the decoration. Maps from different parts of Spain or even pictures from your trips could be also good things to put on the walls.
• Have you think of importing Spanish beer / wine?. How easy (and cheap!!) is it to get them?.
  
  Oh, and last but not least... how many people in your community have visited Spain?. If there are many people, they will love to have a restaurant offering the same good food they had in Spain. If not, how could you convince them to try it?. Advertising at the local paper?. Uhm, I'd better leave these things to the expert entrepeneurs we have here.

Hope you find useful my suggestions.

Regards,

Antonio

Gracias Antonio for your very thoughtful imput, everything you mentioned is exactly how we feel here...My husband and the owner of the restaurant are both Spaniards and the chef is coming from Spain this summer so the experience is going to be totalmente autentica!
I also love your ideas on the thematic nights regarding the music, we will definitely incorporate it...

p.s. Calibasco, still no exact date on the opening, but will keep you posted...