Colin has been visiting Competa for many years and 6 months ago he decided to come out to Spain on a permanent basis. His aim was to continue with what he knows well and that is the bar and restaurant business. He has managed pubs for over 35 years all over the UK from Cornwall to London to Milton Keynes. The pubs have included Green King and the Hungry Horse chains. He has done everything from front of house, managing and even at times cooking.
Colin and his wife, who sadly passed away before they had chance to move here, felt La Pena Bar in the white village of Archez would be the perfect place for a business in Spain. Colin wasn´t ready to retire but wanted the sun and the relaxed attitude of Spain. At the end of last year he opened La Pena and served drinks only. Once he found his feet he started to cook each day en mass, with fresh produce, large dishes of popular food such as curry and served it throughout the day as tapas.
As the bar became more popular Colin employed a Spanish cook Carmen. Carmen moved from Benalmadena and now lives in Competa. She was a chef in a hotel in Benalmadena and loves to cook traditional Spanish food. Now La Pena serves homemade tapas and traditional main dishes. The Menu Del Dia is extremely popular Tuesday to Saturday and each day there are different dishes to choose from. For 7.50 euro it is excellent value or if you are retired the price is discounted to 6.00 euro. As I was chatting to Colin there were wonderful smells coming from the kitchen. That day’s Menu de Dia certainly smelt good!
The bar itself is traditional looking, complementing the food. However, Colin still has kept with the times by installing a 55” TV for all the major sporting events and hosts a darts team entered in the Competa darts league. Once a month he endeavours to provide live music. However in the month of May he has organised live music with Eu Remolone on the 11th May and on the 24th May he has booked Dave Parker who sings live music from Neil Diamond, The Drifters, Michael Buble, Frank Sinatra and more party music hits.
Recently the bar has started to open at 9.00am to serve breakfast both traditional Spanish and English are available. If you haven’t been to La Pena before it has an outside covered terrace as well as a traditional inside seating. Over the summer Colin hopes to open the roof terrace which will be great for BBQ’s events and live music nights. Bar la Pena is also the perfect place to cater for private parties and functions with both large inside and outside spaces and eating areas along with a great cook.
Bar La Pena is easy to find opposite the river bed, near the town hall with ample parking next to the Bar.
