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Well! What a great weekend. Saturday night’s beach and bonfire party to celebrate La Noche De San Juan went really well. Anton had a few beers at our bar and then went to the beach ahead of us to set the BBQ going. When we arrived at about 11 pm it was burning beautifully and he was able to start cooking the meat we’d prepared in the restaurant, straight away.
We had ribs in honey and garlic sauce, sausages and chicken breasts marinated in lemon juice. The meat was accompanied by, tortilla (Spanish omelet, also made in our restaurant).
There was no shortage of booze to wash all the lovely food down with. One of the great things about Spain is, you can get a really nice bottle of wine for around 6 euros. I took 2 wines from our bar, Senorio De llano Gran Reserva (red) and Tierra Blanca–Cadiz (white). We also had Spanish Champagne (Cava) and for the children we took an enormous bottle of Fanta.
It was a marvellous evening, spent sitting on towels, on sand that was still warm, with good friends and good food, with the back drop of the Mediterranean lit up by a myriad of tiny bonfires and one or two not so tiny bonfires.
Firework displays erupted into the midnight-blue sky at frequent intervals all along the coast making a wonderful free show.
We all had a great time and crept home to bed at about 3 am.
Today our bar and restaurant is closed and we are free for a day off.
We have opened the business on a Sundays in the past and enjoyed very good trade; both in the restaurant and for take away. A lot of people are arriving or leaving the Coast on Sundays, so they come to Graham’s Pizzeria for wholesome, freshly cooked food. That way they can leave their kitchen squeaky clean, ready for the next people due to occupy the apt. or villa.
We really used to love opening on Sundays - we’d have a great atmosphere for Sunday lunch, which was usually a sell-out, then we’d close for a siesta and reopen at 7:00 pm for the evening trade.
At times the restaurant would be working flat-out, as the regulars wanted feeding and then on top of that, there would be all the tourists in transit, starving hungry and impatient to eat.
At the end of a Sunday I would have that lovely sensation that all restaurateurs enjoy after a busy night, the unrivaled sensation of stuffing a big pile of cash into my pockets.
We’ve found that much as we love income, a restaurant must close one day a week, to give everybody a break. This is a chance to go off and do something different and then come back refreshed and ready to tackle another week.
As Graham’s restaurant is situated in a commercial center, we like to be open Mon-Fri, to provide an unbroken service for our regular clients. Saturday we have a street market, virtually right outside the bar, so it makes sense to be open for that and then on Saturday nights we are always busy with the restaurant on the terraces and in addition we have all the teenagers with their pocket- money, who come for take away pizzas and burgers.
