Spanish restaurant owners come up with a revolutionary idea to save their industry – get locals to eat earlier

Spaniards view sitting down for dinner before 8pm as distinctly strange, but it may be the only way to save some of the country’s restaurants, reports Graham Keeley in Madrid

A protester holds a sign reading ‘We are safe spaces’ during a demonstration in Barcelona by restaurant and bar owners to protest against closures  (AFP/Getty)

Stroll through the centre of Madrid and it could be any other busy night, with the bars and restaurants filled with people having fun.  

Except, now diners must vanish Cinderella-like when police patrols do their rounds enforcing a curfew.  

Asking Spaniards to head home when the night is young at 11pm seems anathema in a nation where the evening never really ends.  

However, faced with a second wave of Covid-19 infections which is spiralling out of control, the Spanish government this week imposed a six month state of emergency and decreed a curfew between 11pm and 6am.  

Desperate to save their industry, restaurateurs have launched a counter attack in the hope they can carry off nothing short of a social revolution. Their solution is a radical one - get Spaniards to eat earlier. 

‘#AdelantaTuCena’ – roughly translated as eat dinner early - is the brainchild of Hosteleria España, a confederation which represents bars, restaurants and hotels across Spain.

It hopes to rescue a sector which, before the pandemic, employed 1.7 million people and contributed 6.2% of GDP but now faces the losses of thousands of jobs.

“People like to share their social life with people in the street in this country in bars and restaurants. But given the exceptional circumstances we hope to make a transitory change in people's habits,” said Maria Duran, of Hosteleria España.

“We know that going to eat or drink at 8 or 9 is rare and might seem strange but we are appealing for people to help save a part of Spanish life which is very dear to most people.”  

Ms Duran fears that after bars and restaurants were closed for six weeks earlier this year, the latest curfew may result in the loss of up to one million jobs if businesses close for ever.

Spaniards view sitting down for dinner before 8pm  like we Britons as distinctly strange so getting them to change the dining habits of a lifetime has proved a hard call.  

“It's very hard to change a Spaniard. They will come out at 9 or 9.30 p.m but no later. And then we are having to push them out of the door when the curfew starts,” said Fabio Peral, owner of Amicis restaurant in Madrid.

“When we opened, 70 per cent of the trade was tourists but now they are not here, we only have locals and they only come for offers.”

With customers banished to their homes, the damage to the hospitality industry which makes most of its money at night are plain to see in Madrid.  

Mr Peral, who was born in Leeds but is half Italian, half Spanish, said he had put ten staff on furlough. The staff now consists of himself and the cook, six days a week.  

Museo de Jamon, a famous chain of restaurants in Madrid, has closed two branches.  

To try to save the business, they were offering sandwiches at €1 but it did not work.  

Restaurants and bars on the Calle Mayor and Plaza Mayor, two of the most iconic streets in the Spanish capital, are struggling or businesses have closed.  

The curfew has proved a double blow for restaurants in Spain.  

Most serve a ‘menu del dia’ at lunch time – a three course meal which is good value as a kind of social service but does not make much money for the businesses.  

The real money in the restaurant trade is to be made at night most establishments serve an a la carte menu, which costs more.  

Ignacio Peyró, director of the Cervantes Institute in London and author of ‘We Eat, We Drink’, a book about gastronomy, believes Spaniards will show solidarity towards an essential part of the nation's life: eating out.  

“Everyone knows someone who owns a bar or a restaurant. It is the axis of our social life much like the pub in Britain,” he said.  

“We used to be known as a nation of waiters but now we are a nation of restaurant owners and even in the rural areas of Spain where it used to be hard to find a decent meal now you are never more than 100 kilometres from a Michelin starred restaurant.”

We know that going to eat or drink at 8 or 9 is rare and might seem strange but we are appealing for people to help save a part of Spanish life

Maria Duran, Hosteleria España

Mr Peyró said Spaniards' fondness for heading to restaurants later than many other Europeans only evolved in the wake of the Spanish Civil War between 1936-1939, when years of economic depression forced many to take on two jobs to get by.  

When the work was finally done, people had time to eat.

Joan Roca, one of the founders of the Michelin-starred restaurant Celler Can Roca in Girona, has been forced to close the establishment for 15 days like all others in Catalonia by order of the regional authorities.

“We would love to ask our clients to come and dine earlier but we cannot open at the moment,” he told The Independent.  

Catalonia, like other regional authorities, has been allowed to vary the terms of the curfew and other restrictions depending on the level of infections.  

Barcelona is normally filled with hungry tourists the year round.

However, in the popular Barrio Gótico it is almost a ghost town at night.  

In Born, the hip central area of the city, the restaurants are doing muted business while along La Rambla, normally a bustling boulevard which mixes expensive eateries with fast food places, trade is slow.  

Kate Preston, the British owner of eight restaurants in Barcelona, believes convincing Spaniards to eat earlier will not be easy.  

“It is a good idea but getting Spaniards to sit down and eat before 10pm seems difficult,” she said.  

“It might work in tapas bars but getting them to sit down for a proper meal will be hard.”

A six month curfew is designed to prevent Spain from following France and order its 47 million citizens to stay at home.  

However, the omens do not look good.  

Spain reported 25,595 new infections on Friday, a record high. Almost 140,000 new infections were reported over the past week.

The cumulative tally rose above 1.1 million but Spanish prime minister Pedro Sanchez has said the real total is likely to be three million as many infections are not captured in official statistics. The death toll stands at more than 35,000.

Ms Preston says lack of government financial support during the pandemic will sound the death knell for many restaurants.  

“Many people are going to go out of business. We are not valued but instead regarded as low value economically, therefore expendable,” she said.

Back in Madrid, waiters stand outside restaurants showing off not just menus but signs trying to tempt customers to eat from 8pm.