Encasa Restaurant has been bringing a taste of traditional Spanish cuisine to Sydneysiders for two decades
Ten years ago the business was purchased by chef Pachi, and his wife Maria.
“The food at Encasa is like eating at my home in Spain,” explains Pachi.
“It's like my mum's cooking, it's nothing fancy.
“It's like my mum's cooking, it's nothing fancy".
"It's all simple but it tastes good.”
Pachi hails from the Canary Islands, a Spanish archipelago off the coast of north-west Africa near Morocco. He moved to Australia on a holiday visa where he then met and fell in love with Maria, who was in Australia studying.
Encasa Restaurant & Deli serves a range of traditional tapas. Source: Supplied
He soon applied for a working visa where he pursued his passion for cooking.
“I love my food. I love to eat,” says Pachi.
“So I’ve always been around the kitchen with my mum, with my grandma to my aunties, my dad.”
“So that’s what I love to do, cooking, hospitality is my life.”
When the couple first took over the business, they found making changes difficult, with customers wanting the authentic and original Encasa experience.
Pachi and Maria have grown the Encasa brand to four separate locations in Sydney. Source: Supplied
“We wanted to make changes that we thought would be beneficial for the business, changing the bathrooms, the presentation of the menus,” Maria says.
“But we found that people who had been coming to Encasa for a long time were not happy with that.
"They wanted the same bathrooms from before, they wanted the handwritten menus that were there.”
In 2016, the married couple opened a second branch of Encasa in Lane Cove, a suburb in Sydney’s north followed by two takeaway Encasa shops in Sydney city.
“The takeaway shops have been challenging,” says Pachi.
“People still don’t know who we are. We’re competing with a lot of the big brands in the food courts so it’s been really hard.”
"We’re competing with a lot of the big brands in the food courts."
The couple uses social media platforms such as Instagram and Facebook to spread the word about their newer shops.
Pachi and Maria have also faced hurdles finding good staff.
Francisco ‘Pachi” Rodriguez making a bocadillos. Source: Supplied
“The staff is a big problem,” says Pachi.
“It’s very hard to find good staff, especially chefs in Sydney."
"Hard to find good staff, especially chefs in Sydney."
The couple has found the government's overhaul of the 457 visa regime earlier this year, has impacted on overseas trained chefs' desire to work in Australia.
“It’s not as appealing anymore to them to come over to Australia," says Maria.
"There’s less certainty that at the end of the period of employment that there’s going to be any better security for them and their family.”
