Before the restaurant existed, there was the work of our founders, Salvador and Pepa. He never had just one job: he earned a living in the fields as a day laborer, served as the town’s first local police officer, delivered medicine to those who needed it, or worked as a whitewasher when an extra day’s pay was needed. As the eldest child, she helped raise her younger siblings from a young age; she picked cotton, worked in the rice paddies, and waited tables. Neither of them had ever had just one job, because in those days, you did whatever needed to be done.
Our Origins
In 1982, that drive to keep going led to a small churros shop right next to their home. The two of them ran it together, and soon their sons, Fran and Juan—still practically children—began to lend a hand, as did Pepa’s mother, who lived with them and couldn’t sit still. When the churrería began serving meals, it was Pepa who took over the kitchen. It was there, with no other ambition than to serve good food, that the Cordero de Benahavís was born—the dish that, without anyone planning it, would end up becoming our signature dish.
The rest is a story of hands—some washing dishes, others cooking, still others in the dining room. Over the years, Fran and Juan grew up in the business—one in the kitchen with his mother, the other in the dining room with his father—and little by little, even more hands joined in: daughters-in-law, nephews, whoever was needed. The restaurant was no longer just a business; it was where the whole family gathered.
The years weren't always easy. The family suffered some difficult losses—first Fran, and shortly after, Salvador—and that's when Mari, Fran's wife, stepped up and took over the restaurant alongside her brother-in-law Juan—the two of them carrying on, together, everything the family had built up to that point.
Today, more than forty years after that churros shop opened, Los Abanicos remains what it has always been: a family business, run by the family. Juan and Mari are still at the helm, and by their side, Diego—Fran’s son—has begun to take his first steps in the business, representing the third generation of this story. The same story that began with a churros shop next to a house continues to be written today.