Casa Don Carlos turns 40 in the Lanes, and is looking for a new owner

Casa Don Carlos, the Spanish tapas restaurant on Union Street in the Lanes, is 40 this year. It first opened in the summer of 1986, and its founders have now put it up for sale, as first reported by the Argus¹.

Carlos Gilaberte moved to Brighton from Spain in the 1970s and met his wife, Sylvia, in the city. The couple moved to Malaga for good after the Covid pandemic. Carlos is now in his early 80s, and the sale is part of his retirement.

Francisco Rivas has managed the restaurant for 30 years. He told the Argus it was Brighton’s first tapas restaurant. “Carlos was the pioneer,” he said. “I was in Brighton at the time myself, and I can assure you that he was the very first tapas restaurant here.”

Rivas came from Spain in 1982 to learn English and stayed. He is 66, and said he would rather the place carried on as it is. “We are hoping that the business will be bought by someone who wants to carry on with the same sort of things,” he said. “I’m happy to stay on and help whoever comes around to run the business.”

The restaurant has seven full-time staff, and many of them have been there for years. Rivas puts the long run down to “good food, reasonable prices, good atmosphere”.

The house speciality, according to the Restaurants Brighton² guide, is the Don Carlos chorizo, flambéed. Garlic and chilli prawns, slow-cooked lamb, grilled sardines, meatballs, patatas bravas and ham croquettes are also on the menu, and the sangria can be ordered by the jug. There is still no website. The guide says it fills up on evenings and weekends, and advises booking.

“It’s been successful for 40 years,” Rivas said. “It could be for another 40, who knows?”

Casa Don Carlos is at 5 Union Street, BN1 1HA.