A second el bulli restaurant?

[tony h]

Hi

I've failed to get a reservation at el bulli for the last 3 years - with such obvious high demand are you thinking of opening a second restaurant? If so can I suggest London?

Thanks

Tony

PS any tips of getting in year after next?

[Ferran Adrià]

Hi, there:

Reservations are simple: 8,000 seats a year, thousands and thousands who want to come. How many? It’s almost impossible to know. But there are thousands and thousands. So there’s no way to keep up with the demand. It's our worse "disgrace". No matter how hard we try, we don't find a fair way to handle them.

I don't know anything about reservations, Juli some of them and Luis García, who's elBulli's manager, is the one who handles this matter. I totally trust Luis's honesty.

There would be an easy solution for this: increase prices, but Juli and I don't want to convert elBulli into the most expensive place only affordable to some very rich people. Right now, we’re not at elBulli because of the money, we’re there because we love cooking. And we want to find unassuming couples in the dining room. We don’t want anybody to believe that elBulli is a place for VIPS. Juli and I make a very residual use of our influence.

Blind, I don't have any tricks for you, but if you have any suggestion about this, let us know.

Edited December 19, 2004 by Ferran Adrià (log)

[artisanbaker]

Albert Adria told me last month that personnel requirements is what keeps el bulli from expanding to open other restaurants. It's hard to find good employees.

[FistFullaRoux]

I don't know where you would find another chef of his caliber, with an identical vision for the food. That has to be a major part of it...