The restaurant in Sant Vicenç de Montalt that is fighting against the eviction that Costes wants to carry out on July 31st

The story that the restaurant La Caleta in Sant Vicenç de Montalt is experiencing has three protagonists: Adif, the State Coastal Demarcation (in Barcelona) and the Casado family, who have been serving seafood dishes there since 1955. Since Albert Casado's grandfather, the current generation in charge, opened the restaurant located between the beach and the road, they have paid a semi-annual rent to Adif, who represented that they were the owner of the land. However, without the Casado family knowing, in 2017 the owner of the property passed to the State Coastal Demarcation in Barcelona, an agency that depends on the Ministry of Ecological Transition. And this is where the big mess begins.

“It’s a mess because, to begin with, we didn’t know and, then, we’ve continued to pay the rent to Adif as always; we’ve been paying semi-annually for seventy-one years,” says Albert Casado (Sant Andreu de Llavaneres, 1988), who expresses the nervousness he feels about the eviction notice from Costes de Barcelona. Last Tuesday, Albert received, as expected, the bill to pay the rent, but two days later, on Thursday, he received a letter from Costes announcing that he would be evicted in fifteen days because the land occupied by La Caleta does not comply with the coastal law regulations. Added to all this is the fact that in 2015 the Casado family had signed a contract with Adif according to which they could continue working there for another fifteen years.

Final eviction order

“Since last Thursday we have begun to file appeals, because our contract is valid, because we have been paying religiously for seventy-one years, and because twenty salaries depend on the work at La Caleta,” says Albert Casado, who adds that the first notification he received from Costes announcing the eviction was last February; Thursday, the definitive one. “Although all my papers are in order, it is as if the judge had invalidated the current contract I have, because there is a firm eviction order,” says Casado.

For their part, and after the meetings the family has had with the Sant Vicenç de Montalt Town Hall, the government team has declared that it will act as a mediator in the restaurant's situation. “The secretary of Local Governments of the Generalitat, Xavier Amor, will meet tomorrow, Friday, in Madrid to be able to halt the sentence,” says Albert Casado.

Everything is up in the air about what might happen in the coming days, but there is one certainty, which is the support the family has received since last Thursday. “We must have done something right all these years when everyone gives us so much warmth,” says Casado, who feels gratitude for people. In fact, the news went viral due to the messages that the restaurant itself began to make public, and in which it also made known that, in addition to the salaries that depend on the restaurant, there is the fact that Albert has a young son with a 75% disability and a degree of dependency three.

La Caleta offers menus from Tuesday to Friday for 18 euros, which always include fish and rice, and on weekends, à la carte. “For a Saturday and Sunday lunch, we serve two hundred and twenty people,” comments the manager of La Caleta, who adds that it is the restaurant that works best for him out of the two he owns: the other is Mas Nadal, and it is located in Sant Andreu de Llavaneres.