Rafa Zafra closes the restaurant Per Feina: "We invoiced daily the same as for one table at Estimar"

The chef Rafa Zafra, from Seville and an adopted Barcelonian, has a pile of successful restaurants. But a few weeks ago he had to close the restaurant with his most popular cuisine located on Via Augusta in Barcelona. "Per Feina has been the most exciting project of my life. My mother used to punish me by sending me with my father on the truck. I didn't know that deep down I loved it. The truck bounced and then we stopped to eat a menu of three starters and three mains. And I was the happiest child. As an adult, I wanted to do the same, but updated," explains the chef on the day he presents another popular project: the Masia Tibidabo restaurant, at the top of the amusement park.The establishment was first located in Poblenou, on Ciutat de Granada street, but at the end of August last year it decided to move it to the upper part because it had many difficulties in making the nights profitable. In the new location, the restaurant gained a surname: "Per Feina / Per Plaer" (For Work / For Pleasure). In this case, in addition to an economical menu, a more substantial meal could also be had. Even so, it has not been enough to keep the business afloat. "I wanted to keep the prices, cheap, and the restaurant was working. We had two hundred people every day, but we invoiced 4,000 euros. And that's a table at Estimar. Or at Jondal [the restaurant Rafa Zafra has in Ibiza], I don't even need to say. We had a whole team working and running for that," explains the chef.

The option of raising prices was not on the table. "We would have had to raise them by double and that would have distorted the concept. We started at 18 euros. A daily menu requires two cooks to make it. The margin did not compensate. In the end, you have to look at the sacrifice, effort and work and the profit you get from it," he says. Even so, he cannot help but feel a point of disappointment, although he assures that the story has ended well. "It was my darling and it didn't give us problems. That's why I kept it for a while: it lasted three years, but that's it. I have been able to bring the whole team to Masia Tibidabo, so everyone is happy and all suppliers are paid. Happy and we don't suffer. You have to know how to close projects," states Zafra.

However, the chef still has a pile of ideas in progress. One in Saint-Tropez, and also a Jondal in Cabo San Lucas, Mexico. The Jondal model, in Ibiza, works very well for him. According to Zafra, it serves 400 covers a day. The chef has the Estimar seafood restaurants in Barcelona, which are celebrating their 10th anniversary this year, and Amar within the Hotel Palace. In addition, he also has some in Madrid, such as his famous biquineria.