The rich and famous like to entertain the rich and famous in restaurants known to be frequented by the rich and famous. And no place better than Marbella for this, it would seem. “Famous people that come to Marbella are usually invited to eat out in restaurants that are considered the very best, and where they know there will be other famous people too,” says Paolo Ghirelli, owner of the La Meridiana restaurant, one of the most luxurious eating establishments on the entire Costa del Sol, famous for its fresh pasta. Marbella’s best-known restaurateurs have lots of stories to tell of their distinguished clients, although one has the sensation that they keep the best stories to themselves. Discretion is part of the menu in all top restaurants.
The arrival of a celebrity is invariably announced beforehand, with a phone call requesting a discreet table for somebody special. This is what happened four years ago in the El Relicario in San Pedro, when a call came through for such a reservation. The caller dropped his own name, sufficient in itself to get the immediate attention of the head waiter.
So far so good, except that hours before the time reserved, a large group of policemen descended on the restaurant and proceeded to inspect every inch of it. “I knew then it had to be the Prince, or somebody higher,” says Pilar Cartes, owner of the El Relicario. Then Prince Felipe de Borbón, accompanied by some friends, walked into the restaurant. He had been given a discreet table, as requested, and was generally ignored by the other diners until somebody called the press on their mobile phone. The paparazzi arrived in force, but were denied entry. The prince and his group went away happy.
All treated the same
In the 22 years he has been running the Meridiana, Paolo Ghirelli has played host to many famous people. The Kennedys, the Onassis family, the Francos, Adnan Kashogui, Brooke Shields, Liz Taylor, Spanish flamenco singer and dancer Lola Flores, Bruce Willis, Tom Cruise, Prince Andrew, the Princess of Wales and singer Rocío Jurado. They are all treated in the same way, as are all the clients in this restaurant. And the rich and famous tend to be treated with even more discretion than usual, to preserve their intimacy. “I would imagine they get fed up with all the special treatment, all the photographers and the like,” says Paolo.
“They come, they eat and they leave,” he says, looking back over the great era of the Spanish celebrity families. “They all wanted to be treated like normal people,” he tells us, “and that’s the way we treated them.” Not in every case, however. Paolo remembers the late Lola Flores as being different. She would come in, grab Paolo by the arm and joke in a loud voice: “Come on, Paolo, take me inside and see if anybody invites me to some caviar!” They were memorable nights that always ended in flamenco singing and dancing.
Bruce Willis was another entertaining client. He took his girlfriend of the time, María Bravo, to the El Relicario, and ended the evening sitting on the table with guitar in hand and treating the rest of the clients to a rendition of ‘My way’. “Everybody turned around to listen. It was a marvellous spectacle, and he actually sang very well,” says Pilar Cartes, a real expert in treating famous clients with discretion. Her tactics are very simple: if anybody gets up to go over to the famous person’s table, they are asked not to. Only if the celebrity indicates no objection are autograph hunters allowed to get close. Pilar has learned a lot in the eight years she has spent in the El Relicario.
Princess in a wig
Some clients are so discreet that they manage to come and go before anybody realises who they are. This was what Princess Diana did in the Meridiana. “She came to dine wearing a dark wig, and asked us not to tell anybody she was there,” Paolo recalls. This was no more than a small measure of the times that were in it, and the time the eccentric singer Prince bought a house on the Costa del Sol. “He came with his wife Maite and took a table in the back,” Paolo tells us. “and he didn’t say a single word. He made his order by writing notes to the waiters. His wife had made the reservation by telephone earlier.”
And what do the famous order? “They like simple food, because they spend most of their lives in very fancy places and get too much of it, I suppose,” says Pilar. Santiago Domínguez has his own theory: “The women like to keep their weight down, so they eat lots of vegetables,” he says.
Finger-lickin’ flavours
Santiago, who has been running his luxury establishment for more than three decades on the Costa del Sol, knows all about the likes and dislikes of the rich and famous. They love the flavours of the typical Mediterranean cuisine, he tells us, and have no problems in conforming to local custom. “One celebrity asked for two loaves of bread, so that he could mop up the sauces on the plates,” he says, without telling us who that was, of course.
His visitors’ book reads like an international Who’s Who. Frank Sinatra, Sofía Loren, Gina Lollobrigida, Julio Iglesias, King Juan Carlos, Manuel Chaves, Camilo José Cela, Mariano Rajoy, Jean-Paul Belmondo and many others have signed their names in the book. “They all like to feel comfortable here, and never demand any special treatment,” Santiago assures us.
And for those that have security problems, there is always a solution. They come to eat when everybody else has left, about three in the morning. Santiago himself then does the cooking, with a minimum amount of staff. “It’s sometimes the only solution,” he says. “And besides, it’s a great way of making sure they get the very best,” he adds.
WHICH IS WHICH
Restaurante El Relicario
Where: C/ La Concha, 11, San Pedro Alcántara (Marbella).
Tel: 952 788 686.
Average price: 40 euros.
Cuisine: Traditional Mediterranean cuisine.
Restaurante La Meridiana
Where: Camino de la Cruz, s/n, Marbella. Turn up from the old N-340 by the Rey Fahd mosque.
Tel: 952 776 190.
Average price: 80 euros.
Cuisine: Italian and traditional Andalusian cuisine.
Restaurante Santiago
Where: On Marbella’s esplanade, straight down from the town centre.
Tel: 952 770 078.
Average price: 42 euros.
Cuisine: Specialises in fish and sea foods.
Courtesy of Sur in English
www.surinenglish.com
