Where the grandparents brought the grandchildren and now the grandchildren bring the children

There are restaurants that serve meals and there are others that, almost without realizing it, end up serving memories. Leles gets emotional when she talks about everything she has experienced within the walls of the Las Palmeras restaurant. It is no wonder: she was born here, she grew up here, and she has been working here for more than thirty years. Her father, Gonzalo, opened the restaurant in 1970 on the Passeig Marítim in Torredembarra. Back then, the menu was simple: salads, paellas, and not much else. The promenade was different, too. "Before, palm trees reigned here. Now it doesn't look anything like that anymore," says Leles, amusingly nostalgic. In 2001, the family decided to take a step forward. They renovated the premises, updated the menu, and changed its name. Las Palmeras was a tribute to that promenade of the past. They also expanded the gastronomic offer: in addition to the rice dishes, the house's Holy Grail, they added fish and Galician meats. "When I was young, I was studying, and whenever I could, I would come to help the family. The idea was not to stay and work here, but life takes you down paths you hadn't always imagined," explains Nieves Muñoz, whom everyone knows as Leles.

Today she runs the restaurant with her husband, Eugenio. They cook traditional Mediterranean cuisine, very focused on the product and without hiding it under a mountain of sauces. In summer, the pace is frantic. It is in winter, when the restaurant recovers a bit of calm, that they can be more creative. We arrive in the middle of August and let ourselves be guided by the house recommendations: rock mussels, Roman-style squid, baby squid, and an excellent sautéed mushroom dish with a Pedro Ximénez reduction and foie shavings.

For the second course, although the fish and meat menu makes things very difficult for us—one of those dilemmas that should be resolved with a second visit—we end up succumbing to the seafood paella. And we hit the mark. We finish every last grain of rice. One of those that, when someone asks you where to eat a good one, you will remember and recommend. We finish with an almond tuile with cheese ice cream and orange sauce, and a homemade mato with caramelized walnuts and honey ice cream.

A loyal clientele

With the coffees on the table, we watch Leles. She doesn't stop for a moment. She knows that her home, over the years, has also become the home of many other people. “We have very loyal customers who used to come with their grandparents and who now come with their children. Imagine that,” she explains. Las Palmeras is a family meeting point. Birthdays, communions, baptisms, and all those moments that end up becoming part of a family's history are celebrated here.

Perhaps that is why it is surprising that Leles does not want her children to take over the business. “Everyone has their own life, their own university career,” she says. She has had Eugenio by her side and knows what it means to dedicate a whole life to a restaurant. She also hadn't imagined that she would end up here. But life, sometimes, takes you back to the place where you started. And Leles continues, more than three decades later, taking care of a restaurant that is her home, but also that of many other families.