Discussing The Season For Tatel and Zela

2017 has been a big year for Ibiza, with plenty of new restaurants and bars popping up all over the island. But inarguably one of the grand openings to dominate the foodie scene have been those of Zela – a Japanese fusion restaurant in the heart of Ibiza Town – and Tatel, the luxurious Mediterranean offering inside the Hard Rock Hotel in Playa D’en Bossa. Both glamorous gastronomic hotspots are owned by the same group, so we sat down with the Director, Santiago Rodriguez, to chat about how the season is going, and how a restaurant group with so much momentum plans to move forward.

Hi Santiago! Tatel already exists in several locations. Why Ibiza?
Tatel was born with the intention of being an international brand, and aside from Madrid and Barcelona, Ibiza is the most international city in Spain. One of our partners is from the island, and he owns businesses out here already, so it made sense. Besides, opening a restaurant here gives you a chance to expose yourself to everyone in the world. People come here from all over the world – from the States, from England, from Russia, from the Middle East… and that’s the kind of clientele we’re looking for, those who are travelling around the world.

Of course. Zela, on the other hand, is the first of its kind. What’s the concept behind it… and are there any plans for more?
The concept is ‘not your everyday Japanese’ restaurant. Japanese cuisine and Spanish cuisine have so much in common; for both cultures, eating is the highlight of the day. Plus, both cultures have a diet very rich in fish – and in Spain we are lucky we have the best tuna in the world… the Japanese get their tuna from Spain. So it makes sense to do a Japanese restaurant, where the seafood is super fresh. Besides, everyone likes Japanese food! We partnered with the owner of the restaurant Kabuki (he has four Michelin stars), who helped us to develop the menu. We didn’t want to be too traditional, we wanted to open a Japanese restaurant where everybody can eat. Although it’s Japanese, it’s a  menu with a lot of Mediterranean influence… the vegetables, the olive oil, the citrus, the fish from Spain. So you can have grilled meat and fish, or you can have a coconut soup – that’s the concept. So far we’ve had great feedback, so now we’re thinking about expanding the brand. We’re planning on opening in Madrid, and next year maybe we’ll find a good location in the USA, too.

What were the challenges of opening two restaurants in one year?
Three, actually! Because as well as Zela and Tatel Ibiza, we’ve opened Tatel Miami this year. It is very challenging, especially when you open venues in different parts of the world, but we’re lucky as we have great support from Tatel in Madrid, so we’ve brought some of the staff over to help. We all believe so much in the project… and when you believe in something, you make it happen.

Brilliant! And how is the season going?
Really good, we’re very happy. We’ve been busy every day and – more importantly – the feedback has been amazing. We have people that stay in Ibiza five days and come to Zela three times for dinner, and then maybe Tatel on the other days!

Tell us a little about the DJs in Zela.
So we have our resident DJ – he’s fantastic, a super classy guy who’s perfect for this ambience – and then five times a week we have guest DJs. They come back every week through the season, so I suppose they are like mini residencies.

And they’re big names, the guests! They play in the clubs and stuff as well. What prompted that decision, to get involved in the clubbing scene a little?
Well, we tried to create a pre-party scene – people can go for dinner and then finish dinner around midnight, but as I’m sure you know, nothing goes on in the clubs really until 3am or 4am. So between 12am and 3am, people were saying, what do we do? Do we go home? We don’t want to go to an empty club. So we tried to create a solution to that with… our clients gather here to have their first few drinks and listen to some music. A lot of DJs come here before their performance in Pacha or Lio or somewhere else, so it’s great for getting that cool ambience.

Can you tell us a little about the menus in both, how they were devised?
With Tatel, we took the Madrid menu and we replicated it – but we added some items that are very popular on the island, like more seafood. Plus, you have the big spenders who want to come and treat themselves with caviar and blinis, and you know like sure, why not. And the wine list is probably more extensive here than in Madrid. With Zela, we took from the Kabuki base and added in some Mediterranean dishes and style. We are very proud because we developed the whole thing in a month.

Do the two venues attract similar clientele or different?
I would say 70% similar clientele, which is people between 30 and 60 who enjoy a good lifestyle… however, in Zela, we have more locals. A lot of our clients have houses here… they come for the weekend, or they have a house here and a house in Madrid. But Tatel, obviously because it’s inside the Hard Rock Hotel, we get a bigger proportion of tourists there.

Are there any further plans for expansion within Ibiza?
Not right now… Next year, we’re expanding in the US, in Los Angeles and Philadelphia – and then we’ll see from there.

How long are the venues open for this year?
We’re planning to close Tatel at the end of October and open again at the end of April. With Zela we’re still debating. Because we have such a local crowd, everyone is telling us to keep it open for the winter. But obviously there’s an economic component to that, so we’re looking at the numbers and working out the possibility, but there’s a big chance we’ll keep it open all year round.

Information & Reservations
w: www.zelarestaurants.com
w: www.tatelrestaurants.com/ibiza