Alicante Council is looking for a company to reopen the kiosk

Alicante is looking for an owner for the former Peret. The old ice cream parlour on the Explanada, which closed six months ago due to several debts owed to the City Council and its employees, is now up for public bidding for the next seven years for a total of 1.26 million euros, with two possible three-year extensions.

After months of stalling (Deputy Mayor Manuel Villar stated in February that “some details” were still required), the government team has finally unblocked the process of granting the former Peret concession. Last April, the renowned establishment was permanently shuttered after years of struggle with the previous owner (who was unrelated to the family that founded it) over repeated nonpayments. In reality, months before the kiosk closed, the local police blocked off its patio.

The City Council now expects that the Peret, albeit under a different name, will resume operations in the coming months. The Local Government Board approved the call for tenders for the award. According to the filing, the annual fee will begin at €170,000 and increase by 2% each year until it reaches €191,447 in the seventh year. This amount is projected to be greatly exceeded, considering the success of similar operations in recent public auctions (doubling the basic bidding budget).

Farewell to a historical figure

El Peret’s history has been intertwined with that of Alicante since the early twentieth century. It opened its doors in 1916, in the midst of World War I, by royal decree awarding Vicente Richard Ballester the right to build a refreshment kiosk called “Quiosco de Peret” (Peret’s Kiosk) on what is now the Esplanade, but was then known as Paseo de los Mártires (Mártires Walk), a name that disappeared from the street map after the Civil War and was later reinstated for the road between the Esplanade and the port.

A few weeks later, Pedro Fuster Iborra, a local nut merchant also known as “Pere the Peanut Vendor,” made an offer on the kiosk. Vicente Richard accepted. From that point forward, the establishment started offering soft drinks, horchata, sweets, nuts, and other similar products.

Author: Derek Appleton