Tapas bar plan for market
POPULAR SPANISH DELI TO CREATE 30-SEATER RESTAURANT
Reporter A TINY tapas bar and restaurant is to open in Newcastle’s Grainger Market, serving traditional Spanish dishes alongside cavas and sherries.
La Casa Delicatessen and its owners Olga Fernandez and Angel Romero have won over an army of regular customers, keen to recapture holiday memories by sampling its imported delights, since opening in the historic market.
With its shelves and fridges crammed with continental delights such as wines, olive oils, cheeses and chorizo – predominantly from La Mancha region in central Spain – the business is bursting at the seams and in need of extra space.
Ms Fernandez and Mr Romero have longed to expand the business by offering customers traditional tapas dishes – and that ambition is now coming to fruition after they took on the neighbouring empty unit.
As well as giving the pair more space to sell more Spanish treats, the unit will also have room for a small restaurant where they will cook and serve hot and cold tapas.
They have also just been granted an alcohol licence, allowing them to pair dishes with Spanish beers, wines and sherries.
The couple, who moved to Newcastle from La Mancha six years ago, originally started La Casa Delicatessen as a regular stall at the Quayside Market every Sunday.
Its popularity gave them the confidence to take up a unit in the Grainger Market in June 2016, which has become popular with Newcastle residents, tourists and Spanish ex-pats living in the North East.
Ms Fernandez, who also hosts wine and food tasting events across the region, said: “Since opening it has gone very well and we need more space now.
“The shop will be much bigger and we will sell much more food. We are both from La Mancha, which is a very large region, and we’re passionate about educating people about everything you can buy from there. We work very closely with small, family producers in Spain, and we’ve grown our relationship with them as the business has grown.
“Now we want to offer food too, so we will have room for 30 people alongside the shop, to sit and have proper tapas that we will make ourselves, both hot and cold, including churros with thick chocolate sauce and breakfasts, like pan con tomate – bread with fresh tomatoes and olive oil.
“We’re very excited, but nervous at the same time.”
Regular customer and close friend Emma Carlton, an award-winning pastry chef, said: “In the two years they have been here, Angel and Olga have gathered an amazing following of people who have been on a Spanish holiday, had a great experience, and can come back and get that experience again by buying La Casa’s little pockets of sunshine.
“The cheeses they sell come from farmers often only making 25 kilos of cheese, and they’ve had some wonderful olive oils too, and you can’t get these things anywhere else.
“La Casa has created a community thanks to the influx of Spanish residents and students, with many people just coming here to hang out and talk, practice their Spanish and tap into the fact that Olga is an oracle of information. This isn’t just a place for food and drink – it’s dedicated to Spain and a hub for people, so I’m very excited by its next stage.”
The extended La Casa Delicatessen will open in June.