It started out as a holiday romance. Now couple are opening a new tapas restaurant in Mapperley

A holiday romance with a Spanish chef has led Nottingham woman Lucy Bradley down an unexpected path. Seven years ago she had been planning to go to university but now she and her fiancé Mustapha Meziani will be opening a tapas restaurant in Mapperley.

Called La Zenia, the restaurant takes its name from the seaside town in Alicante where they met in 2017. Authentic Spanish tapas and cocktails will be served when it opens later this year.

But it wouldn't have happened if the two hadn't met after Lucy had gone on a last-minute holiday with her parents and a friend. They met in a bar and even though she couldn't speak Spanish and he couldn't speak English there was an instant connection.

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When Lucy returned to Nottingham, she worked in a call centre to make some money for university and the two used Google Translate to message each other. But soon afterwards she returned to Spain to work in the restaurant where Mustapha was a chef.

"Everyone was Spanish speaking so it was straight in at the deep end. I thought just go for it for nine months, not knowing if it would work out with him, worse case scenario I'll just come back," said Lucy, now is now 25.

"Now when I look back on it I understand why my friends and family were worried about me and thought I was crazy. I never went to university in the end. I was going to Leeds to do psychology but I think it was a blessing in disguise because I didn't really know what I was going to do, but I always wanted to travel.

"Six years later we were still there and running the restaurant together. After a year-and-a-half of working in the industry we were running it, and we were thinking, we could do this on our own."

The couple looked at potential sites in Spain and found a unit - but then the pandemic took hold and they were both furloughed. They came to the UK in January 2023 and found a home in Sherwood near Lucy's family. Mustapha, 26, landed a job as a chef at Escabeche in West Bridgford, while Lucy worked as a manager for Oxfam.

In the meantime they were looking at vacant properties all over Greater Nottingham. Lucy said: "We were looking in Mapperley Top, Sherwood, West Bridgford and Beeston. We were looking in the city centre but we preferred to have a community feel."

They spotted an empty shop in Plains Road, Mapperley. Previous occupants, Alf & Co, left the high street to sell their children's clothes and toys online. "This was our number one area but there wasn't many places coming up - as soon as this came up I wasn't sure from the outside but it was the first one we walked in and imagined how we wanted it to be. We will have an outdoor area and upstairs is a bonus. It just felt right. All the others were missing something," she said.

Work to transform the empty shell will be starting any day. The restaurant have an open kitchen and earthy colours, mainly terracotta, with patterned Spanish tiles on the stairs and a painting of a Flamenco dancer. "We're going for a rustic traditional warm charm with a modern touch," said Lucy.

The two floors and outside will have around 75 seats in total, a mix of sofas and tables and chairs. Classic Spanish tapas will be on the menu such as padron peppers, patatas bravas and paella, along with specials. At lunchtimes tostadas will be served. The toasted bread, drizzled with olive oil and a sprinkle of salt, is usually topped with tomatoes but there will be variations like smoked salmon and cream cheese.

The emphasis is on fresh food and while prices won't be cheap they won't be expensive either. Lucy said: "We are going to be affordable, really good value for money, with good service, back to basics.

"For me it's so important when people come in they feel welcome and are acknowledged straightaway. We'll get the staff saying 'hola' when people walk in and we want people to be happier when they leave than when they came in.

"You don't get that all the time anymore, you get your QR code on the table. For me people are paying for service, they're paying for an experience, not to just come and have some food."