The most popular day for a día de descanso in bars and restaurants in Spain is Monday. Doh!
Do pubs and restaurants in England have a day off? I think not.
OK, so given that Spanish bar owners and managers seem incapable of organising their rotas to open every day of the week, why do most choose Mondays to close?
I’ll tell you what they say. “We’re tired after the busy weekend!”
Do me a favour!
Preamble
Do English hostelries close for two weeks so that the landlord/lady and his/her family can go on holiday? Of course they don’t – they get a locum in.
And another thing, off season, lots of places round here only open Thursday to Sunday.
Since the Covid-19 pandemic, it seems that bars and restaurants are no longer a service to the public, but simply money-making enterprises for their owners.
Many of my good friends are “publicans”, to use that quaint English term, but they cannot see this issue from my point of view.
“Why shouldn’t we close if it’s not worth opening?” they chorus.
Sorry, I see it differently. If you are an alcoholic, a heavy drinker, a coffee addict or simply a sociable person, who wants to indulge your passion 7 days a week, why shouldn’t you be able to?
Clearly, if you rent your bar/restaurant and have to employ staff, it’s very different to a “landlord” who owns his premises and only family work there, BUT NOWADAYS THEY CLOSE ALSO!
Last night, Monday 25 November
We went out for tapas with English friends, A and T, who have lived in Montejaque (Málaga) for a number of years. Not yet old enough to retire they have “kept the wolf from the door” by renovating properties, renting to tourists and selling at a profit.
Now they have sold their house in Montejaque – they go to the notary tomorrow – and they are leaving to go and live in a house they own near Mojácar (Almería), some five hours away by car.
They are sad to be leaving the Serranía de Ronda, but they now see their future in the far east of Andalucía.
So, as a farewell we decided to go out for tapas in Ronda, bearing in mind that one of us is vegan. Most of the places on my list of favourites which offer vegan dishes were closed. These included Bar El Puente, Bodega Casa Mateos, El Almacén, Miyagi Express, and Siempre Igual.
We started off at another favourite, Café-Bar Sensur. Because of the dearth of other places to go, we stayed there for nearly two hours and ate our fill. Delicious.
Oddly at 10.00 pm the bars that had been open in Plaza del Socorro were already closed or closing. Weird!
Nightcap
We decided to go to Calle La Bola for a nightcap, where a couple of places were still open. We chose Toro Tapas, where we just had a drink and continued our chat.
Interestingly, we discovered that Toro Tapas currently opens every day of the week, lunchtimes and evenings. Good for them!
We had a really nice evening, despite the problem of it being Monday, and promised we would visit A and T in Mojácar next year.
I was in Mojácar for two weeks in 1989 with my first wife and our two young kids (aged 5 and 2 – they are now 41 and 38, each with two boys, my British grandsons). But Rita hasn’t been there.
I remembered enjoying Mojácar, and A and T clearly like it also.
The Verdict
We had a nice time. But I still think all the closures, which are now the norm, it seems, are taking the mickey. But it will never change.
© The Curmudgeon
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alcoholic, Andalucía, Bar El Puente, Bodega Casa Mateos, Café-Bar Sensur, Calle La Bola, coffee addict, Covid-19, Curmudgeon, day off, de tapeo, día de descanso, El Almacén, heavy drinker, landlord, locum, Miyagi Express, Mojácar, Monday, nightcap, pandemic, Plaza del Socorro, Serranía de Ronda, Siempre Igual, sociable person, Toro Tapas, vegan