Open a restaurant in Spain with the numbers done first
Foreign investors rarely fail on the concept. They fail because nobody built the economics before the doors opened. We act as your project manager, from feasibility through to the first service.
A 30-minute first consultation, free and with no obligation.
Three things that surprise foreign investors
None of them appear in a generic business plan, and all three change the budget before a single wall is moved.
There is no single Spanish licence
Spain has seventeen autonomous regions and each one runs its own regime. In Andalusia and the Canary Islands you can open on a responsible declaration; in Valencia a certified body can let you open the same day; in central Barcelona new restaurant licences are not granted at all, so you have to buy an existing one. Where you open changes what opening even means.
The address decides the project
Most Spanish cities restrict new hospitality in saturated acoustic zones, street by street. A location that looks perfect can be one where a new licence will never be issued, or where the terrace you counted on can be refused on heritage grounds. This is checked before you sign, not after.
Local prices are not published anywhere
Supplier pricing in Spain is negotiated, not listed. A foreign operator without local relationships routinely pays well above market for the same produce, and that difference lands directly on your food cost every single service. We negotiate as a local buyer, on your behalf.
How we run your opening
We act as your project manager from start to finish, dealing with every external supplier — builders, licences, utilities, software, marketing — so you have a single point of contact. We do not run several openings at once. The person you speak to today is the person who will run your opening: there is no internal handover.
Project assessment
A free meeting to understand your idea and assess what the project actually needs. You leave with a tailored quote and a clear timeline of how we would approach the opening.
Feasibility and business model
We build a solid business plan, so you know whether the project stands up and under what conditions.
- Total investment and payment schedule
- Fixed and variable costs for the format
- Revenue scenarios and break-even point
- The real cost of the site cross-checked against what that format can turn over at that specific address
Menu and profitability
Every dish is created with its cost and its margin already defined. We do not design a menu and price it afterwards.
- Menu design suited to the format and the neighbourhood
- Supplier selection and price negotiation on your behalf
- Dish-by-dish costing and selling prices set by margin
- Standardised recipes and plating with technical sheets
Team and operations
The restaurant has to run on a system, not on somebody's memory.
- Recruitment, from key roles to floor and kitchen staff
- Training for both kitchen and front of house
- Written processes for opening, service and closing
- Systems that hold up when you are not there
Equipment and technology
We advise on machinery, tableware and furniture sized to the volume you actually expect, and connect you with our software partners — POS, time tracking, management — seeing their implementation through so everything works on opening day.
Project management through to opening
We coordinate the building works, licence transfers, utility connections and platform registrations, and we are present for the phases that require it: the works, supplier tastings, staff training and the first services.
What you have on opening day
- An economic model validated before you commit the investment
- A menu with real margin calculated dish by dish
- Costs under control from the first service
- Operations that work whether or not you are there
- A trained team with a system behind it
- A business built to last, not to survive its first year
You do not need a hospitality background
Many of our clients are investors from other sectors. They bring capital and commercial judgement; we bring the hospitality knowledge, with real kitchen and floor experience behind every decision.
Opening a restaurant in Spain
What language will my project be run in?
The groundwork happens in Spanish: suppliers, builders, licensing offices, staff training and the first services all take place in Spanish, and handling that for you is a large part of what you are hiring. We run projects directly in Spanish, Italian and French. English-speaking investors normally have a Spanish-speaking partner or manager involved on their side. Tell us your situation in the form and we will be straight with you about whether we are the right fit.
Do I need to be resident in Spain to open a restaurant?
You do not need to be resident, but you will need a Spanish tax identification number and, in most cases, a Spanish company. The exact route depends on how you plan to hold the business, and it affects the project timeline, so it is one of the first things we map out.
I already have a site under offer. Is it too late?
We can join at any stage, and the earlier the better, because more decisions are still open. If you have a site in mind, tell us the address: the first thing we check is what regime applies there and whether the numbers for that specific location work with the format you have in mind.
Planning to open a restaurant in Spain?
In 30 minutes we assess your project, judge its feasibility and tell you what it needs to work. No obligation.
If you already have a site in mind, send us the address. We check what applies there and whether the numbers work before you sign anything.