Xiao Ye explains that it’s been weeks since he saw themneighbors of the La Florida neighborhood of L’Hospitalet de Llobregat (Barcelonès) approach him to ask him when the historic bar Al Alandaluswhose former owners said goodbye in mid-2023 after a lifetime behind the bar and the kitchen.
There is still some furniture to fix, but Xiao, who took over the restaurant last June, says that this Saturday December 16 everything will now be 100%. In this way, after half a year of works and renovation of the site, the local will reopen to the public this Saturday. “We have changed the menu a little, but everything is still typical Andalusian,” explains the new owner of the bar to this newspaper.
Last June, Enrique and José María Garcíatwo brothers of Cordoba origin who had been almost 40 years running the business, they pointed out that they had decided to hang up their aprons and enjoy retirement once and for all. “I have an apartment in the Tarragona area and now it’s time to enjoy with the grandchildren, my daughters were almost raised by my mother-in-law,” commented José María in relation to all the hours that work at the restaurant has taken from him over the years. years.
popular neighborhood
More than a ‘goodbye’, since the blinds were lowered, Al Andalus said ‘see you later‘ to his lifelong clients, since Xiao Ye, a businessman of Chinese origin who already has six other restaurant establishments in the areaalready announced then that his intention was to keep the name and much of the decoration of the restaurant.
“We are going to renew the lighting, make some maintenance improvements, but we are going to preserve the Andalusian style and foodto reasonable prices“Because we are in a neighborhood of working people,” Xiao said then.
Andalusian culture
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“As we had problems with some cooks, my brother Enrique went to cooking school and from there we began to make Spanish and Andalusian food, but more elaborate,” says José María, who also claimed a certain pioneering in the implementation of premises with the typical Andalusian style in the city.
He also recalled how many flamenco artists and politicians have come to eat at the restaurant throughout its 38 years open. Among them, the former mayor of Barcelona and former president of the Generalitat Pasqual Maragall or the actThe mayor of L’Hospitalet, Núria Marín.