SOLD - The Spanish Table, Berkeley, Mill Valley, San Francisco

JUST SOLD
THE SPANISH TABLE
Berkeley / Mill Valley / San Francisco

Restaurant Realty sold The Spanish Table, a three location food, wine and cookware destination in Berkeley, Mill Valley and San Francisco! Keith Simpson represented both the seller and buyer.

The Spanish Table was started in 1985 when husband and wife team Steve Winston and Sharon Baden were having dinner with friends who were planning a trip to Spain. On a whim, they decided to join them. Once there, they fell in love – with the delicious foods, wine and the culture of Spain.

After returning to the U.S., they found it impossible to replicate those incredible meals, because the ingredients just weren’t available. Their solution, open up a shop – why not?

Sellers, Andy and Tanya Booth partnered with Steve & Sharon for many years until Steve’s retirement in 2016 and ran the shops in California. Andy spent a good chunk of his childhood living in southern Spain near Cadiz and has amazing memories of sitting on top of tapas bars while his Parents enjoyed sips of sherry and tapas, running along the best beaches in that part of the country and catching live Flamenco shows.

The Booths met in culinary school in the states and decided to take their love of cooking to Spain for a couple of years and cooked professionally for “Restaurante Arzak” amongst other endeavors. Upon returning to the U.S., they settled in California and have been enjoying finding new wines and foods to share with their always curious customers.

There are currently three (3) successful Bay area “Spanish Table” Specialty Grocery Retail stores, with a total retail space of 6,300 sq ft which were established in California by Andy and Tanya in 2001. The business grew from Berkeley in 2001, Mill Valley 2006 & San Francisco 2015. Shipping containers of specialty goods arrive from Europe 3 times annually and are stored in a Warehouse in Richmond which each Grocer store feeds.

Restaurant Realty & Keith Simpson were contacted by the Booths in April of 2021 as they were itching to move to Europe, particularly Spain or Portugal and were considering a sale of their beloved business, but had no idea how that process works. After meeting with Keith, a value was established using a complicated analysis as unlike a restaurant, these Specialty Grocer stores operate on a completely different measurement. For instance, cost of goods is 52% and labor 14%. The average restaurant runs 32% and 35% respectively and these stores carry around $550,000 in inventory, far more than most restaurants of similar annual revenues.

They enjoyed tremendous growth in 2020/2021 which has been sustained in 2022.

It was difficult to find the right Buyer with the right mindset as this was not a simple AM/PM or 7/11 so a passionate “Foody” was necessary to carry the Flame for the future.

By the end of March 2022, Buyer Bastian Schoell agreed to purchase. The Spanish Table, along with SBA loan assistance, closed Escrow on September 8th.

Bastian is an accomplished professional having worked in business many years as a Product Management Process Specialist, Director of Product Management and an International Business Development & Technology Program Manager.