It was 38 years ago and out of necessity, when Jose Rodriguez Correa he opened the restaurant that bears his name and by which he is known by customers, family, friends and most of the residents of Tacoronte, his municipality. He did it because he had to sell some 12,000 liters of wine that his father, who died a few months before, had in the winery.
Until that moment, he had worked as a salesman on the street, but he had a little friction with his boss and decided that it was time to leave and start another activity.
He had an empty place of his own that until then had been occupied by a toy store, and 12,000 liters of wine, so he did not hesitate to open a kind of guachinche to offer it along with the tapas made by Angelita, his wife, who always had very good hand for the kitchen, “and discharged because then the facilities of today did not exist”, he exposes.
Taking advantage of those skills, they designed a couple of dishes and put up a grill to start roasting the chickens. It was quite an adventure and a risk, because until that moment “I hadn’t made a single chicken for myself,” she jokes. But the need to start working, to move the business and the family forward -the couple had two little girls-, and the desire they had, made them take risks.
Even Angelita had to roast chickens at the beginning because the beginnings are always complicated “although they are still a base and an experience for the rest of your life”, she reflects.
They ran into very good people who supported them, especially the man who sold them the machines and who treated Pepe “as if he were my father”. He told her the whole truth, that he had no experience in restoration but that the place was his and that he only had 500,000 pesetas to buy all the machinery he needed. The man kept a letter in his wallet and gave them all the tools to get started. They cannot forget this gesture and even, despite the time that has elapsed, he is moved when telling about it.
At first their idea was to open a fish restaurant -one of Angelita’s specialties is marinated tuna- since it is the star product of the area, but the fishermen refused to not have a boat that would provide them with it. who opted for roast chicken: a dish they could defend, given that there was no solution for fresh fish.
They worked hard to make them come out good and tried to make them famous by offering diners half a portion to try before choosing a dish. This is how he began to make customers to the point that there were people who came from Santa Cruz to eat roast chicken at El Calvario. Over time, he not only achieved his goal but also that he was known as ‘Pepe, the one with the chickens’.
As a good salesperson, consistency has been his success. There was no menu on the table, customers have always won them “by dint of making gastric juices.”
His secret was to roast the chickens with firewood that he cut and loaded himself and to which he never put any sauce or marinade. “The meats have to go naked, only with salt, because the flavor is in the firewood,” he explains. He used apple, pear, orange and lemon trees, which also give a blue flame, and eucalyptus without the peel, because it is a hotter wood and lasts longer on fire without having to add anything to avoid smoking.
Many people came to his place and told him, “I want to eat what it smells like.” The smell was the main public relations of him. “But all this is given to you by time and the trade”, he emphasizes.
They also gave him great friends and loyal customers who, aware of his early retirement, did not hesitate to organize a surprise party for him with more than 150 people who even came from other islands and in which the mayor, José Daniel Díaz, and the former president Hermogenes Pérez, who did not hesitate to review the history of this emblematic establishment to which 38 years after founding it, Pepe and Angelita say goodbye because they consider that it is time to rest a bit.
The good news is that after several days closed on March 1, El Calvario restaurant reopens its doors. In front will be Marcos, who until now was the right hand of the popular grill, so quality and good service are guaranteed.
A highly demanded and inevitable Charlot in the Piñata Chica
What Pepe will not retire from is Carnival, a party that he lives to the fullest and in which he has always played Charlot, the popular character created by Charles Chaplin. “I ate the paper,” he says, to the point that on several occasions he had to dress in his restaurant at the request of customers, especially foreigners, who required him to do a number. His wife isn’t much of a carnival fan, but “when she started going out at night, she also got dressed to keep an eye on him so he wouldn’t run away,” she says, laughing. This year he will enjoy the Piñata Chica without rushing to get home or thinking about meeting schedules the next day. He proudly comments that one year he “gave a nuisance” in the plaza to a civil guard who did not recognize him. The next day, the man went to his restaurant and when he asked how his service had gone the night before, he told him that “a Charlot had been bothering him all night.”
