The former owner of the Acatife restaurant, Segundo Duque, will give his name to one of the streets of Villa de Teguise. This was unanimously approved this Tuesday by the Plenary of the Teguise City Council, supporting the proposal made by the official chronicler of the municipality, Francisco Hernández Delgado.
Segundo Duque died in 1985 and the City Council now wanted to pay him this tribute, for embarking on the adventure of giving life to the first restaurant on the Island. "He ran the Acatife Restaurant for more than twenty years until it became a tourist and cultural reference in Teguise, where not only the gastronomy stood out but also the meetings, literary gatherings, cultural, sports and congress events", said the Official Chronicler of Teguise to defend the proposal to dedicate a street to him.
According to the report by the technician of Archives and Libraries of the Teguise City Council, in 1961, it was Domingo Hernández Peña from Teguise who inaugurated the Hostal Restaurante "Acatife", in the old mansion of Antonio Cabrera de Ayala and later residence of Domingo Cancio Pérez (current Plaza de la Constitución, Teguise). "The hostel restaurant, equipped with an elegant black and white decoration, would become a benchmark that would promote Lanzarote's gastronomy and turn Teguise into one of the capitals of the restoration of the Eastern Canary Islands, for more than sixty years", the technical report stated.
Just one year after its opening, the establishment was transferred to the honoree, Segundo Duque Fontes, and his wife, Carmen Abreut Camacho, "who would begin their journey sharing, in the early days, the regency with their cousin Andrés Cejas Duque." Since then, the Acatife property has maintained its family roots, "being passed down from generation to generation".
A parenthesis until the restaurant returned to the family
Finally, after the death of Segundo Duque in 1985, the restaurant was leased to chefs Dusan Senkerik and Domenica Lender, who continued to operate the emblematic bar-restaurant, rehabilitating the historic building and adapting it for a new typical Canarian cuisine. But after five years, the Duque Abreut family resumed their culinary tradition within this establishment, with the difference that from then on, the regency passed into the hands of the second generation, his son Ignacio Duque Abreut and later his brother Félix.
"The monumental and historical attraction of Villa de Teguise was increased by the obligatory visits of the people of Lanzarote to enjoy the gastronomy offered by the Acatife restaurant, whose fame crossed insular borders. Segundo Duque not only knew how to win the trust of his customers with his famous roast goat and breaded fish, but the halls of his restaurant also became meeting rooms and literary gatherings. Cultural, sports and congress events, such as roosters, Canarian wrestling, soccer, folk groups (here Nanino Díaz Cutillas recorded the songs of the Rancho de Pascuas), chess and travel agencies grew and were promoted under the roofs of the old house", highlighted last July the chronicler of Teguise, who has now seen this initiative approved.
