She’s had much success with her Spanish street food takeaway shop in Kirkcaldy, Los Buenos Amigos, and its spin-off travelling kitchen The Wee Tapas Box, but now owner Alicia Aparicio is preparing to open the doors to her very first restaurant.
With the help of her husband William Morris, and her trusted kitchen staff, Alicia and her team will be taking over the kitchen at Glenrothes Golf Club from Friday September 17, with a mix of her Spanish classics and new Scottish favourites expected to be on the menu.
She has decided to add the fusion of Scottish cuisine into the mix, nodding to her husband’s homeland.
Launching a range of new dishes customers will never have tried before, Alicia says there’s something for everyone.
Takeaway closing
Wanting to offer her customer base the chance to sit in and enjoy her food, Alicia will be closing the takeaway shop on Victoria Road in Kirkcaldy so that she can focus her efforts on the new restaurant.
With Glenrothes Golf Club’s restaurant space empty, Alicia approached the club to explore potential opportunities.
“We wanted to give our customers the chance to be able to sit at tables and serve them good food without them having to take it away in a box,” adds Alicia.
“We chose Glenrothes Golf Club because it’s a beautiful place, the views here are fantastic, and the restaurant space was going to lay empty anyway. So we thought why not go and speak to them? Now we are taking over the kitchen.
“I am the kind of person who feels that I won’t be able to put anybody else in the kitchen doing what I do. It’s my recipes, it’s my culture and what I’ve been doing is what the people like.
“I will have a chef coming to learn the recipes and who will work alongside me in the kitchen. It also means I can share a bit of the job but my eyes need to be on top of everything and if I am in another place I wouldn’t be able to do that, which is why we will be closing the takeaway.”
Home deliveries continuing
As her home deliveries of Spanish food proved so popular among Kirkcaldy residents throughout lockdown, Alicia is keen to keep these going and will expand their delivery radius to include Glenrothes, Markinch and nearby areas.
“We’re going to continue with the home deliveries because those are still proving popular and there are some people who are elderly or don’t feel comfortable going out for a meal that still want to enjoy our food,” she continues.
“We will continue our home deliveries in Kirkcaldy, as that’s where we’ve built up our main customer base and we want to keep serving them. We will also do home deliveries in Glenrothes, Markinch, Leslie, Leven, Methil and those areas nearby.
“But, at the moment, we’re getting a lot of good reaction from customers – they all want to come in and try the food.”
Breaks in the afternoon
With bookings filling up for the restaurant, Alicia feels it’s still important for her and her team to have a break between service, meaning they won’t be open for several hours in the afternoon.
The eatery will operate Thursday to Sunday every week, with the potential of opening seven days a week if demand is there.
On Thursdays and Fridays the venue will be open from 11am to 3pm and 6pm to 9pm, and on Saturdays and Sundays, customers can visit from 11am to 8pm.
“We’ve got a lot of people who have booked already for the opening day, though there will still be some tables available,” she says.
“At the moment we will be closed on Mondays and Wednesdays, though we are likely to review these in the future, probably towards winter.
“On the weekdays we will be having a break in between the different seatings as we don’t expect it to be as busy those hours and it will give us the chance to have a break as well.”