Talking about prawns and Sanlúcar de Barrameda is talking about a mustache house.
The key to your success: “Let really be prawns of Sanlúcar fresh, alive, and cook it as we have always done: Cook the prawn, take it out when you start to boil, put it in brine and eat it at the moment you are cooked. There is no
More, “explains Fernando, who, together with his brother César, form the third generation in front of this essential of Cádiz.
Sanlúcar’s prawns are “a unique product that is raised and feeds on the marshes of Doñana. Then we, who have the shrimp as a flag, we take care of as the exclusive it is, buying the best and treating him like nobody”.
Casa mustache has no Michelin star or pretend.
“We are not prepared for it, our cuisine is traditional, in on-board, homemade style”.
But yes Bib gourmand distinctions.
“We are from the four or five restaurants in Spain and Portugal that we have maintained this recognition consecutively from the first year in which it was instituted.”
It was in 1951 (this year they are anniversary) when a sailor in the area, Fernando beautiful, opened a small tavern of just 40 square meters.
After getting married, he retired as suffered from the trade.
She rented a place under her’s house and opened a tavern dedicated only to chamomile’s office and where he did the Zafo.
“The sailors did the fish auction on the beach. The patron of the boat was the one who made the distribution of the benefits, the sailors did not trust and take care of the Taberos”.
Fernando was allowed to grow a mustache “in the style of Errol Flynn” and his friends began to call him “the mustache”.
He already had the name.
Assemble the business “It cost him very little because he paid a rental that must be minimal. A bar of four meters wide, three wine boots, only served chamomile and no employee. Until my father [who was also called Fernando] began
To help you with 13 or 14 years. ”
In 1970 Fernando (son) took over the business.
His brother Paco of him joined the company and little by little they were hiring employees.
“Neither my grandmother nor my mother never worked here, but they did taught my father how the dishes are cooked and what is done with each fish.”
He incorporated food to the original tavern, always at the front of the kitchen, “working little by little and with very firm steps, but always making the cuisine that he wanted, looking for his own style and an author cuisine always based on the traditional
The women of the sailors. And for eight or nine years, with the help of my brother César. ”
Currently, Casa Bigote has 30 employees and all in their jobs despite the pandemic.
“After the closing of March, the reopening in July 2020 and a good summer, a new wave arrived, our business is 80% interior and we had to close from October until last May 6. Losses, all of the
World, we had to resort to where there was no. Luckily, this summer has been extraordinary. ”
Casa mustache closes in November and Sundays.
“Of all life, my father has maintained that tradition. It has always worked very well during the week, with business people, wineries, construction, banks …”.
And politicians.
“All government presidents have come during their stay in Doñana. Three years ago, when Angela Merkel met Pedro Sánchez at the Palace of Medina Sidonia, Sánchez’s wife came [Begoña Gómez] and her husband [Joachim Sauer
“.
The discretion is one of the virtues of the family and it is difficult to get some name.
We must ensure the privacy of customers, despite not having private spaces.
They do not offer catering service, that’s why it denies having sent products to the Maristsmillas.
“Sometime, with previous governments, we have been asked for some commission; we have notified our provider and they will have sent what they asked them.”
Nor are there photos of personalities on the walls;
Yes old images, boats, sailors, neighborhood people.
Remember when Felipe VI, being a prince of Asturias, visited them taking advantage of his participation in the Nautical Week of the Port of Santa María.
In the 80s, in the disappeared Teatro Apolo recorded a South Channel Copla program that presented Bibiana Fernández and Carlos Herrera.
“They did the dinners here. Hence the good relationship with Herrera; He is like in his house, he leaves, enters, gets in the kitchen … Every day an artist came, as Joaquín Sabina who is a client, shrimp, Miguel Ríos
, José Andrés … Many people of culture. We are very grateful, but especially our customers usual for their fidelity. ”
At home mustache the fourth generation is already prepared.
A son of Fernando has been working in kitchen for a couple of years.
It all began with the grandfather Fernando beautiful, in 1951 and continued with his children Fernando mustache (this is known) and Paco, who paved the business to the highest.
Paco, at 65, decided to retire and devise himself completely from the business.
“My cousins did not like the hospitality, my father, at 75, is still at the foot of the canyon, because it is what he likes and with what he enjoys and feels done,” says Fernando.
A business that began as a small tavern and now counts, in addition, with a two-story restaurant for about 80 people in each.
“Nothing to do with the beginning, is your price? The one we want to put it. Surely what is best is our brand.”
