6 Questions with Simon Tran of Botellón Spanish Tapas on Fusion Cuisine, Closing A Restaurant
Read time: 3 min
By Sophie Braker
This article is from an interview with Simon Tran. If you want to learn more about his story, watch his videocast episode BSP379: Simon Tran of Botellón Spanish Tapas on Reopening A Restaurant, Restaurant Real Estate Lessons & Challenges Of Being Chef-Owner.
Simon Tran is reopening his Spanish inspired restaurant after a tough lease and landlord situation caused him to close. Botellón Spanish Tapas is meant to be a gathering place for people to explore new food, wines, and flavors. Simon is planning to open in late August or early September after closing in the summer of 2021. Read below to learn more about Simon’s inspiration behind the concept and his journey to reopen the restaurant.
First restaurant job?
My first job was at a Dunkin Donuts back in Shelton, Connecticut. There are a lot of locations so they had me shuffling around from place to place, being a cashier and dishwashing. There were a lot of people my age working there. I was born in Philadelphia and my family moved us over to Bridgeport, Connecticut. We got our start over there. That entire area is loaded with Dunkins. It’s a lifestyle out there. It’s crazy I’ve only seen one or two Dunkin Donuts out here. It’s definitely an East Coast thing.
What’s a food / drink you always have on hand at home?
I always have Yerba Mate and rice. I have nishiki or jasmine rice most of the time.
What does the name "Botellón" mean and what does it represent for the concept?
A botellón traditionally is a gathering of people in a public space, such as a park in Spain. It’s mostly among youth for them to pregame, pool their money together, and gather a large group to figure out what they are going to do that night. Anyone sixteen to thirty years old joins the group. At our Botellón, we’re looking for larger groups to pitch in on a bunch of different bottles, to taste a bunch of different foods and wines. The idea behind the concept is to have a diversity in all the flavors. The direct translation is “a big bottle.”
How do you manage conventional and unconventional influences within a fusion concept?
The balance comes from the little details. I will cook my broccolini dish with crispy jamon but I also incorporate garlic chips into it which is very Asian. So the little accents are where the influence comes in but it’s still traditional. I make my romesco without bread crumbs. It's gluten free. Using different nuts and different influences. It's still centered around those techniques but it's varied a little bit. The foundation of the dishes is conventional but the accents, flares, and nuances are where I get to play more. Like my scallops dish is pretty traditional, but then you incorporate something like lychee into it. You have to remember that conquistadors came around and had access to these ingredients. So it's a type of fusion that might have been possible in the past. I steer away from some of the ridiculousness that you can do with fusion even in my personal cuisine.
What's the hardest part about having to close down your restaurant?
When we had to shut down the first time, it was really difficult. We were really down on ourselves. It was really hard to find the motivation to keep it moving. Eventually after two months of sulking around, doing nothing, I finally got up and we started hiring out brokers. The first hurdle to finding this location was finding a good broker who would represent us, what we needed, and having those business connections. What we noticed was there are a bunch of class A buildings out there that are willing to do the renovations but not for a small no name concept like us. We are definitely a smaller business. We aren’t like Troy Guard who people are begging to come in and open up concepts. The second hurdle was convincing a landlord that we were capable of actually doing business. We are so young but we know what we are doing. Plus we have the stigma of already shutting down the first time.
What happened was our landlord refused to work with us. We had renewal options on the lease but the landlord essentially refused to honor those renewal options. Honestly at the end of the day getting dragged through litigation and going to court and arbitration would have cost us six figures in lawyer fees. It was in our best interest in letting it go and move on with a new location. To go somewhere else. Your lease and landlord has to be able to work with you. If you don’t know what’s on your lease or don’t understand what it’s saying, you’re going to struggle right from the beginning.
What's one thing new restaurateurs should know before opening a restaurant?
You’ve got to have the self-motivation to do it. There’s no one there to tell you to get your ass out of bed and make those phone calls and make those decisions. You have to make your own schedule. No one is there to hold your hand. You don’t have a boss. You are your own boss. If you’re not going to get up and do it then no one is going to do it. You have to set your own deadlines. You have to make sure you’re on point. You need to surround yourself with go getters, instead of seeing the obstacles they see the solutions. That’s a big difference in mentality right there. It is about how badly you really want it at the end of the day. That’s the motivating factor.
