It’s been a week since Miguel and Maggie de la Torre told their staff they were selling their building in preparation for closing their business and retiring.
But merely talking about those future events still makes Maggie chuckle nervously about that future reality.
The couple has owned and operated the city’s lone authentic Spanish restaurant, De la Torre’s (1606 Bardstown Road), in the Highlands for 24 years, and added La Bodega Tapas Bar almost a decade ago.
At 58 (Miguel is 57), Maggie de la Torre finds herself “staring down the barrel of 60 and thinking, it’s not that far off,” and acknowledging that “the restaurant business mostly is a young person’s game. We love it, but it’s hard. And our kids have been on us for years to be done with it.”
Three kids, to be precise, one each scattered between New York, Los Angeles and London, where their first grandchild was recently born. Each year the couple closes the restaurant for vacation and travels to Spain, Miguel’s homeland.
“People tell us all the time, ‘What great places to visit!’ But what they don’t realize that we are our restaurant. When we’re gone, we have to close,” de la Torre said. “That’s lost income for us, not to mention the travel (stress) required to go to those places. We love going, but maybe it’s time to be gone longer.”
For likely many months to come, De la Torre’s and La Bodega will operate as usual. De La Torre said each will continue to operate until the 8,400-square-foot building, which includes three rental apartments upstairs, sells for the right price.
They’re asking $1.1 million, which doesn’t sound like a lot for prime Highlands real estate that, following a fire more than two years ago, was nicely overhauled.
“La Bodega is brand new, and a lot of De la Torre’s was redone,” she said. “That restaurant needs updates like any restaurant, things like having the floor redone. That’s expensive, and we thought it silly to spend the money to modernize it and then have someone else come in and change it the way they wanted.
“We’re telling ourselves it’ll take a year to sell, but we don’t have any idea how long it’ll take. We’ve never sold a business before. But until then, we’ll keep running it the way we always have.”
Even if her children hadn’t pushed Maggie and Miguel to consider selling, de la Torre said her body was already screaming for a break. Despite being a night owl, she said the stamina required to work until 2 a.m. on weekends is fading, and that the bodily aches that come with the territory become more pronounced every year. Arthritis in her wrist isn’t helping matters, she added.
“I don’t want to be making and serving drinks in a Rascal,” she said, laughing and referring to the motorized four-wheel assisted mobility cart. “It’s mentally and physically taxing work; it’s not like sitting at a desk all day. It’s so fun, but it’s so hard.”
Especially in an ever-competitive and restaurant-crazy town. De la Torre recalled very few fine dining competitors when her restaurant opened in 1988: “Equus, Lilly’s, Metro, Le Relais, not that many, really.” But with every new spot, be it a NuLu independent or a chain juggernaut in the East End, the business feels it, she said. “When Fourth Street Live started, that was a huge challenge for us. … People do come back, but they want to take up what’s new and give it a try. The economy has also been a great challenge for us.”
De la Torre said her and Miguel’s experience has taught them to “bob and weave a little bit and adjust our business to new changes,” but that there’s only so much they could do and remain De la Torre’s. “If there’s one legacy we’ll leave here, it’s that we’ve been true to our concept, and I’m proud of that. People would ask us to change this or that to make something more American, but we resisted that. … The only exception I made was to serve iced tea. Anything else you saw in our restaurant, you could find in Spain.”
Though the relaxation part of retirement sounds enticing, the bubbly de la Torre conceded that not working in a restaurant—whenever that comes—will leave the couple doing a lot of “what next?” thinking.
“My job, especially, is very social, so I know I’ll miss that part,” she said. “But we have to keep reminding ourselves that, physically, especially, the handwriting is on the wall, and we don’t want to stay at the dance too long. Pretty soon, it’ll be time to go elsewhere.”
Like London, New York, L.A. and Spain?
“We do love Louisville, and I don’t see us not keeping a connection here,” she said. “But becoming grandparents really made a profound change in our lives. I want my grandson to know me, and that will be about impossible to do if we kept the restaurant.”
Steve Coomes is a Louisville restaurant industry veteran turned food writer. In his 22-year career, he has edited and written for dozens of national trade and consumer publications including Nation's Restaurant News and Southern Living. A past restaurant critic and food feature writer for Louisville magazine, he pens features for ...
It’s been a week since Miguel and Maggie de la Torre told their staff they were selling their building in preparation for closing their business and retiring.
It’s been a week since Miguel and Maggie de la Torre told their staff they were selling their building in preparation for closing their business and retiring.
