The Business Exchange Bath & Somerset Issue 8: Summer 2018 | Page 27

IN PROFILE
Why have you invested in Bath?
I think Bath diners enjoy the tapas bar concept. A tapas bar
in Spain is there for absolutely everything – a coffee in the
morning, a light lunch, a set menu or a proper sit-down
dinner. There is the right mix of people in Bath to sustain
this - plenty of tourists and visitors who come for breakfast
and lunch, offices for after-work drinks and some very loyal
locals who come for a proper dinner. Our menu is freshly
prepared on site, with ingredients sourced from small
artisan producers in Spain. That authenticity is important to
customers in Bath.
What do you like most
about the city?
Omar Allibhoy
Owner of Tapas Revolution
Popular Bath restaurant, Tapas
Revolution, recently unveiled a
traditional Spanish mural as a tribute
to its culinary heritage.
We caught up with the brand’s
founder, celebrity chef Omar Allibhoy
(once dubbed the ‘Antonio Banderas
of cooking’) to learn more about the
Bath business and his plans to ‘put
tapas on the map’ in the UK.
It’s such a beautiful place. The fact that you can walk
everywhere makes it very appealing to me as I grew up in
big cities like Madrid and London!
How many people do you
employ in Bath? What’s the most important thing
you’ve learnt in business?
We have 16 full-time employees and 8 part-timers. Simple. Surround yourself with a team of people who are
great at the things you most need help with.
Do you use any Bath businesses
to source your produce?
We import most of our produce directly from Spain, but in
Bath, we do have a local beer on tap - Electric Bear Brewery
beers.
Where is your best performing
restaurant?
In terms of sales, it is our restaurant in Birmingham’s Grand
Central. The footfall in that shopping centre, being right in
the city centre is magnificent. If we are talking about £’s
per square foot then the best performing would be
Westfield Shopping Centre in London.
WORK - MEET - EVENTS - CAFÉ
What’s next for the Tapas
Revolution brand?
Currently, we’re on the lookout for new sites throughout
the UK so we can continue bringing great tapas to the
people. There is the capacity for us to open more restaurants
because we have a fantastic team that is keen to grow. A
great incentive for them is to see more branches of Tapas
Revolution, so we are currently looking for the right site in
the right town and have a long list of places we think could
work well.
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01249 700 000
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Just off M4 Junction 17
THE BUSINESS EXCHANGE 2018
27