The potato omelette from Bar La Concha in Estepona turns 60 years old

The year was 1965 when Bar Márquez opened on Terraza Street in Estepona, now known as Bar La Concha. At the helm at that time were Isabel Galán and her husband, José Márquez. At 22 and 24 years old respectively, newly married, they started a family business to thrive, offering well-crafted and cared-for tapas that were very well received by the locals and tourists, mostly Germans.

This year 2025, the potato omelette from Bar La Concha turns 60 years old and it is a special omelette, made with a lot of patience, over time, with at least 15 eggs, and with onion, garlic, and parsley. Indeed, it is well set, very firm.

"I, who have always been a businesswoman, proposed to my husband to start a business when we got married, a bar, so I made many and very good tapas, back then fish was very cheap, I made red gurnard, forkbeard, all that I did battered… they were big tapas and people came a lot," Isabel recounts.

And then came the omelette, actually two: "I started making potato omelette my way in two varieties. One with chorizo, green pepper, parsley, and garlic. And another with potato, parsley, onion, and garlic, which was more successful because the chorizo was spicy and the pepper was spicy and people preferred the latter."

Isabel shares her secret: "You peel the potatoes, chop them very small, peel the onions, put everything in a pan with good olive oil and when it's half cooked I add the parsley and garlic and then mix everything well with the eggs, at least 15, if you use less it doesn't turn out the same," Isabel tells SUR. "And everything goes back into the pan to cook slowly and I let it set well on its own."

She admits that no one taught her how to make this omelette and her son Alberto tells us that it is "a special recipe" from his mother. "I got into the kitchen and didn't know how to do anything because I was very young, my mother would say 'how are you going to cook if you don't know anything', and I told her, mom, 'just let me and you'll see how I succeed'. And I did."

And she looks back with nostalgia because "Estepona in the 60s was an envied little town, the Promenade had little bars all made of glass where you sat and saw the sea. It was very different from now, it is no longer that Estepona, it was a town of local people, with deep roots, but not anymore. It has changed a lot, it was the locals who arranged things."

Isabel is now retired and no longer makes battered red gurnard, but her business remains one of the recommended spots for tapas in Estepona and her omelette continues to be talked about, 60 years after creating it.