Words by Lotus Abrams
On any given afternoon at Iberia Restaurant in Belmont, chef and owner Jose Luis Relinque can be found bustling around, preparing for dinner service with his team amid a flurry of activity—yet every day is different. On this particular afternoon, Jose Luis is troubleshooting the crash of his point-of-sale system; a friend is waiting in the bar to retrieve a cookbook she’d loaned him; and a delivery arrives, sending Ruby, the Norfolk terrier that accompanies him everywhere, into a frenzied fit of barking. “These are the challenges that come with the business, but I enjoy it,” Jose Luis says, unrattled. “It keeps me on my toes.”
Iberia Restaurant has been serving authentic Spanish cuisine on the Peninsula for more than three decades. “We’ve served more than 400,000 paellas since we opened,” Jose Luis says. Beyond the ubiquitous paella, the kitchen turns out a wide range of regional specialties—from Basque Country and Catalonia in the north to Andalusia in the south.
Jose Luis plans his menus months in advance, rotating dishes with the season, and always incorporating an element of the unexpected. “I change the menu constantly so that people always have a reason to look at it,” he says. “It’s a little bit like going to Costco—a treasure hunt. You always want to look to find out what’s new.”
A typical menu includes an array of hearty, rustic fare like chickpeas with chanterelle mushrooms; classics such as patatas bravas and gambas al ajillo (pan-seared blue prawns with toasted garlic, smoked paprika and fino sherry); and more elaborate dishes like shrimp mousseline-stuffed morels with lobster-brandy sauce. Highlights this spring include gazpacho malagueño, a chilled soup made from almonds, bread, olive oil and vinegar; a tuna confit and bean salad; Portuguese hunter’s rice made with wild boar and antelope; and rice with clams. “It’s called ‘musical rice’ because when you discard the clamshells into a bowl, they make a ‘clack, clack, clack’ sound that’s like music to your ears,” Jose Luis says.
There’s a story behind every dish served at Iberia Restaurant, even the sangria. The recipe dates back to the summer of 1974, Jose Luis’ last one in Spain before he came to California. He and his friends made a batch of sangria during an impromptu party at the apartment he was renting near the beach. “We didn’t have anything to put the sangria in, so we made it in the bathtub,” he laughs. “Of course, I lost the security deposit. That bathtub was never white again!”
Back in those days, Jose Luis had no idea he would one day become a successful restaurant owner. The son of a policeman and a seamstress in Barcelona, Jose Luis was working on a master’s degree in physics at a local university before the allure of a new life in California beckoned. He arrived in the Bay Area in the fall of 1974 at 20 years old with a single suitcase, speaking no English, and with nowhere in particular to go.
Thankfully, Jose Luis has a knack for making friends—a skill that has served him well throughout his career. While still at the airport, he met some Santa Clara University students who introduced him to the manager of a pizza restaurant on the Peninsula. Jose Luis started work immediately and quickly rose through the ranks, later landing jobs at more prestigious establishments, including the French restaurant Liaison in Palo Alto and an Italian seafood restaurant in Cupertino, where he was the manager.
Almost 10 years after arriving in California, Jose Luis opened Iberia Restaurant in 1984 at the Ladera Country Shopper near Portola Valley. At the time, there were few authentic Spanish restaurants in the area, and he wanted to open “a casual place to meet friends and have some tapas and a glass of wine,” much like the bars and restaurants he frequented back home. A few years later, he opened an English restaurant in Menlo Park near the train station, and eventually moved Iberia Restaurant to that location, where the popular eatery drew notable guests such as Joan Baez.
When the Menlo Park building was sold in 2015, Jose Luis was forced to relocate the restaurant. One customer in particular played an instrumental role in its future: John Arrillaga, the late local philanthropist and real estate developer whose parents hailed from northern Spain.
Jose Luis had put a $300,000 deposit—all his savings—on a $2 million building in Belmont and was just five days away from closing on the sale when he learned the deal might not go through. “The appraisal wasn’t ready due to a clerical error, so the bank couldn’t move forward,” he says. At risk of forfeiting his deposit, Jose Luis called John to ask for a temporary loan, to be repaid with interest, until he could resolve the situation. “He asked me which bank I was working with and the next day, the bank called me and said everything was approved,” he says. “I still don’t know what he did!”
The Belmont building, nestled against a hillside on El Camino Real, has been the home of Iberia Restaurant ever since. The blue, yellow and red color scheme matches the Villeroy & Boch china, one of Jose Luis’ first investments as a restaurant owner. The walls are covered in watercolor reproductions of 1920s and ’30s posters hand-painted by Jose Luis’ uncle in Spain, making it the kind of place that’s easy to enjoy. The bar area, outfitted with clubby blue leather barrel chairs, low cocktail tables and a long wooden bar, is a welcoming spot to unwind and catch up with friends over a glass of vermut (vermouth in Spanish) and a few tapas, while the adjacent dining room, ringed with high-backed wooden benches, invites guests to linger over a meal. “Creating an ambiance where people automatically feel comfortable has always been important to me,” Jose Luis says. “I want them to feel joyous and happy while they enjoy their meal here, whether they’re discussing business or love affairs or just the last movie they saw.”