The Restaurant Las Maretas celebrates 38 years of history in Costa Teguise as a benchmark for gastronomy and traditional service in Lanzarote. The project, led by the couple Domingo Medina and Queta Martín, opened its doors in 1988, at a time when Costa Teguise had barely 300 residents.
After almost four decades at the helm of the establishment, the couple reviews in an interview with the program Más de Uno Gourmet of Radio Lanzarote-Onda Cero, the keys to the success of a family business sustained by consistency, respect for the customer, and love for the profession.
- What were the beginnings of Las Maretas in 1988 like, and what was Costa Teguise like at that time?
Domingo: In 1988, Costa Teguise was practically a desert where barely 300 people lived, compared to the 10,000 who reside there today. We had to attract customers from Arrecife or Tahíche, competing with Puerto del Carmen, which concentrated almost all the tourist leisure on the island.
Queta: When we opened the restaurant, I was pregnant with my eldest daughter. The beginnings were very hard, accentuated shortly after by a severe economic crisis in the early nineties. People would walk by and at first, they would cautiously come in to order something simple, like an omelet; if they liked it, they would come back the next day.
- Domingo, you came from working at the Meliá Salinas Hotel. Where does the service philosophy you apply at Las Maretas come from?
I started working at the Salinas Hotel in 1978, and there I learned the French service system. In the Canary Islands, that traditional style has been disappearing in general catering, but we have maintained that school of table service, where fish is carved and cleaned in front of the diner with absolute dedication.
- At Las Maretas, there's a joke that almost no one reads the menu…
Domingo: We joke about the menu because I prefer to tell it to the customer in detail, explaining what product we have and how it is prepared. For me, that is true catering: guiding the customer and getting them to trust that they will be offered something of quality.
Queta: In the kitchen, I don't have a microwave or bain-maries with prepared sauces. Everything is made on the spot, whether it's a lemon cream or a cardinal sauce with mushrooms. Although the kitchen is small and it's sometimes maddening to manage several simultaneous orders of dishes prepared at the moment, I handle it very well because I'm already used to it.
- Domingo attends to the dining room and Queta directs the stoves. How are work pace and family reconciliation managed?
Domingo Medina: In the dining room, I am alone and we serve between 30 and 60 diners per service. Sometimes in the kitchen, moments of tension arise when several tables arrive at the same time without anything prepared in advance, but the key is to organize ourselves so that the customer does not wait excessively.
Queta Martín: During the first five years, we worked without a single day off, relying heavily on my mother for my daughter's care. We worked split shifts of 16 hours, and the family effort was great, but over the years, the entire journey traveled is valued.
- After 38 years of career and 40 years of marriage, how do you see the future and generational succession?
Queta Martín: It has been 38 years dedicated body and soul to hospitality. The children will not continue with the restaurant, so the time will come to close our chapter, rest, travel, and enjoy family and my granddaughter.
Domingo Medina: It's hard to think about closing because we have formed a great family with the customers who visit us year after year. I think we should hold on a little longer, because experience counts, and this profession still fascinates me as much as it did on the first day.
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