Having launched their Spanish cuisine takeaway during lockdown, the couple behind Los Buenos Amigos have set up a trailer to carry tapas boxes and other treats to customers unable to visit their shop.
Food and drink businesses the length and breadth of the country have spent the past 12 months adapting and changing to the times as restaurants, cafes and bars faced an unprecedented number of closures and restrictions.
One of the newest enterprises to emerge on to the scene is The Wee Tapas Box from the team behind Kirkcaldy’s Spanish cuisine takeaway shop, Los Buenos Amigos.
Having started the takeaway shop in lockdown, owner Alicia Aparicio said the idea started from a desire to sell her native cuisine at local markets in Fife.
The beginning
She said: “In 2019 I had an idea to sell paella at the local market, so I started building that up bit by bit. I had a gazebo, I happened to get a big paella dish, as I had been making it and serving lots of people with just a small kitchen dish. Then the pandemic came and all the markets closed so I didn’t know what I was going to do.
“Then I started selling food from my house – environmental health inspectors came to my house and gave me permission to do that. That did really well and lots of people started asking me where my shop was and whether they could come and pick food up from the shop. I didn’t have one at the time but then I decided to open a takeaway shop, which is what we have now on Victoria Road in Kirkcaldy”.
Hitting the road
With demand for her delicious Spanish food soaring across Fife but many people unable to venture to Kirkcaldy to visit the takeaway due to lockdown, Alicia decided to find a way to bring her food to the people who couldn’t come to her.
She continued: “Then what happened is that so many people from many places further afield were requesting delivery and we couldn’t deliver outside Kirkcaldy. Due to the demand, though, we decided to get The Wee Tapas Box and be able to travel with deliveries from the shop.”
“The shop has stayed open and we only just set up the tapas box last weekend. I’ve left my husband in the shop with some chefs who have my recipes, then I am everywhere else with The Wee Tapas Box.”
Travelling tapas
Starting out serving the people of Fife, Alicia hopes to take The Wee Tapas Box further afield into the likes of Perth and Dundee.
She said: “For the first few weeks we are just going to travel locally in Fife with the box, because of lockdown, such as Rosyth, Dunfermline and Inverkeithing, where I couldn’t go with deliveries. On Fridays now we are in Cairneyhill, with last Friday being our first one. It was brilliant and everybody loved it.
“As soon as possible I will be looking to go to Dundee, Perth, Aberdeen and a lot of other different places where we definitely wouldn’t be able to do deliveries from the shop in Kirkcaldy.”
Out and about
With products including goat chorizo, patatas bravas, croquettes, chicken paella and churros with hot chocolate, Alicia’s food proved hugely popular over their opening weekend.
She said: “This weekend past, was the first time we went out in The Wee Tapas Box and it was amazing. I advertised it a few weeks ago, that Los Buenos Amigos was going to be doing this and people on Facebook were so looking forward to it – they were sharing it everywhere.
“We were also at Canmore House in Dunfermline the other day. They had said they wanted to be the first place to have us, so they let us set that up. I put it on Facebook the night before and the amount of people who came along was unbelievable.
https://www.facebook.com/Alicia.A.Aparicio/posts/286825902808705
“Some people just happened to be passing and thought there was a strike or a protest going on because of the number of people on the street who had come along to try our tapas and paella. It was crazy!
“I think it’s just because it’s something a bit different. I always try to have some Spanish music playing too and help cheer people up. What I’m offering is secure, Covid-wise, and it’s helping to get people out the house and try something different, which I think is working very well.”
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