Two Bristol friends who share a love of Spanish food are opening a new tapas bar in the city. Monica Worsley and Maria Garro de Oro plan to launch Picaro on Chandos Road, Redland - and with four teenage children each, they won’t have to look far for extra help in the restaurant.
“We have eight children between us and teenagers always want money so I’m sure our kids and their friends will be only too pleased to do a few weekend shifts at Picaro,” says Barcelona-born Monica, who was a social worker in Bristol for more than 25 years.
Monica also runs the Cooking It cookery school for children and adults, and it was only when the premises next door became available that she decided to open a tapas bar.
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“The cookery school is very busy and I needed larger premises but then a friend convinced me to open in the old Aaron’s Jewish Deli next door,” says Monica, who lives in Bishopston with her husband and four daughters.
“I always said I wouldn’t open a restaurant because I come from a family of restaurateurs in Barcelona and I know how hard they work - but Maria convinced me so I said I’d be a silent partner in Picaro.
“Maria is Argentinian and she was married to a Spanish man for 20 years and lived in Madrid so she knows all about tapas.” Monica says she wants Picaro - which means ‘Bohemian’ or ‘vagabond’ - to replicate the authentic tapas bars found in all Spanish cities.
“I used to live in London and I have lived in Bristol for 26 years so I have been to a lot of restaurants that claim to serve tapas but they aren’t like the places in Barcelona," she said.
“Tapas is for sharing so there needs to be enough food on the plate. There are some restaurants that claim to be Spanish and you get tiny portions or they put three small tapas down for four people - it’s all a bit mean and not very generous.
“I want Picaro to feel like any typical tapas bar you’ll find in any Spanish city - and we want to be welcoming and very generous.” And it’s not just the food and drink that will have a genuine Spanish flavour - Monica also wants the ambience to be authentic too.
“Hopefully we’ll have a lot of people speaking Spanish and we plan to have a monthly Eat and Speak evening where all you’ll hear is Spanish.
“The waiting staff will speak Spanish and the customers will order in Spanish. We are very loud so it will be very loud and convivial.
“Maria and I both love food and all of our ingredients will be sourced from great Spanish producers. I have just come back from Barcelona where I visited a ham producer who rears their own pigs.” Picaro plans to open in April.
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