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QF Focus Magazine


Pat focuses on the faces behind our local businesses Da Silva's Restaurante Bar


- George Thomson and Pedro Da Silva


After having some health issues, George and his wife came to Spain in 2007 to buy a holiday home to use while they were working on their plan to move here permanently, which they did 3 years ago. Having been born and brought up in central Scotland, Quesada was a complete change for them.


Pedro was born in Portugal, where generations of his family have owned vineyards, including his parents who still own theirs to this day. For 14 years before moving here last March, Pedro worked at Fuertaventura in a very large busy restaurant where he ran the front of house as head waiter. He is the fiancé of George's daughter with whom he has a son, so when they decided to open the restaurant there was only one person they were going to name it after, George's grandson Daniel Da Silva.


The restaurant is open everyday except Monday and due to their different backgrounds, the menu is very varied with a different menu for lunch, evening meals and Sundays. All the food is freshly cooked from scratch including all their breads,


naans, desserts and sauces, all being made by their full time baker, who along with the other 5 members of staff, keep everything running smoothly. Their clientele consists of various nationalities from English and Spanish to Swedish and French.


George loves to play the saxophone and Sunday lunchtimes often end up with an impromptu blast of music and singing on the lovely outside open terrace area, while a saxophone theme runs through the inside of the restaurant. Due to the work he is putting into the restaurant, George doesn't have much opportunity to visit his family in Scotland and Sweden so they now come to visit him! Pedro's parents visit when they can, and from their vineyard, George and Pedro are hoping to source their own organic wine label within 2 years which they are very excited about. With a busy restaurant to run, George says his tea time pint with the 'muppets' at his local is something that he misses, but making a success of the business more than makes up for it.


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