Local deli with a global renown
When David Pavon came to Bristol from Spain for ‘an adventure’, he couldn’t have imagined that more than a decade later his business would be hailed as one of the top 50 of its kind in the world.
Today El Colmado is one of the brightest shops on Gloucester Road, lifting the winter gloom with its colourful displays reminiscent of Spanish summers. The delicatessen’s offerings of cured meat, olives and cheese from the Iberian peninsula have proved a hit with customers who want quality produce.
David says: “I saw there was no quality offering for Spanish food. The big supermarkets do stock some Spanish produce, but it’s mostly low-quality and geared to big profits – nothing like the food we would get at home from our parents or grandparents”.
Arriving 18 years ago from Terrassa, a city near Barcelona, David says he knew little about Bristol ‘apart from Massive Attack and Tricky’. After working in a restaurant and studying IT, he opened the first El Colmado in 2013 in a small retail unit opposite The Gallimaufry.
“I though there was a big enough Spanish community in Bristol who would support us, but it turned out the English were bigger customers, wanting a taste of things they had enjoyed while on holiday”.
Brexit and Covid brought new challenges for a business relying on imported goods, but according to David the pandemic proved to be an unexpected boon.
“With Brexit we faced the problems that all businesses faced. We just had to adapt. In some ways Covid was a good cover-up of the consequences”, he says.
“But the pandemic brought us customers who were reluctant to go to supermarkets. With all the restaurants shut, people were doing more home cooking and would come to us.
“Some of those customers have stayed. People like it that I am choosing the products, I am giving it to you as the face of that product rather than just from a shelf in a supermarket.”
In 2021, El Colmado – ‘grocery store’ in English - was mentioned in a Financial Times list of the '50 greatest food stores in the world’, bringing a further boost for trade.
Two years ago, the shop moved into bigger premises further up Gloucester Road, in a unit previously occupied by butchers T & P Murray. David says he plans to remain there for the foreseeable future, but there will come a time when he will return to Spain.
“For now my home is Bristol, but at some point I will have to move back to look after my parents”.
