Legendary Costa del Sol pizzeria closes after 35 years of serving 'loyal' customers

At 69 years of age José Luis López Rosique says that he now has time to do what he has not been able to do for more than forty years dedicated body and soul to the catering business: read, walk the dog and take English lessons. For 35 years he has been in charge of the legendary pizzeria El Horno de Hufo in the Islas del Sol complex in Torre del Mar on the eastern Costa del Sol. It has always been popular among customers for its traditional wood-fired oven, a small menu that hardly changed over the years and the friendly service of all its staff.

But since 16 September Mondays have no longer been "magnificent", the name with which Hufo baptised the first day of the week, when the restaurant would offer “the same menu but at reduced prices”.

For 15 years López Rosique combined his work as owner of the restaurant with his contributions to the now defunct regional newspaper Informaciones de la Axarquía, which was distributed free of charge between 2002 and 2007. He wrote the column on the back page, in which “with a touch of humour” he gave his touch of humour to the political current affairs of the Axarquía.

But his passion and vocation has always been the hotel and catering business. He started at the end of the 1970s with the Hamburguesería Kuki, on Torre del Mar’s promenade. It was only open for three years, “although it worked very well”, he recalls.

Then in 1982 he opened a pub next to the cemetery in Torre del Mar, which he christened with his nickname. “It was the most sinister area in Malaga, because there were several bars next to the cemetery, but it worked well, it was before the Copo boom,” he recalls, referring to the years that the Copo area of the town would be overrun with people partying on the beach every weekend.

As chance would have it, on a winter getaway to the Sierra Nevada he met an Italian pizza maker, Michaelangelo, who had an establishment in Torrox. “We became friends and he told me he was tired, that he was going to close the business. It occurred to me to ask him to pass on his menu and recipes, and three of his workers even came with me,” José Luis recalls.

That was the beginning of El Horno de Hufo, the legendary pizzeria that has fed several generations of residents of Torre del Mar, Vélez-Málaga, Torrox, Nerja and even Malaga city. The pizzeria was opened in the premises where the pub had been near the cemetery.

“The truth is that we have always worked quite well, even during the Covid-19 pandemic, when we started the home delivery service, and we kept it,” says López Rosique, who stresses that the secret of his pizzas was the fresh ingredients and the daily preparation of the bases, which are totally handmade. “I didn't invent anything, but we have kept the essence throughout all these years,” he explains.

In addition to the classic pizzas, one of the big stars of the menu were his ‘calzones’, which El Horno de Hufo called ‘dobladas’. The meat and vegetarian lasagnas were also made fresh every day and the so-called ‘pasta chuta’, with bolognese and cheese were two other essential dishes for lovers of the most traditional Italian flavours in Torre del Mar. “On the menu we had few meats, some chicken and a menu for the children, in case they didn't like the pizzas, but it was rarely the case,” he says with a laugh.

The clientele has “always been very loyal and fixed”, mostly national, especially from the province, although he also had his unconditional fans among the residents who spent their summers in Torre del Mar.

The stone oven he built in 1989 is still standing, but the premises are now closed. “Everything has its beginning and its end. The story ends here, things don't last forever,” Hufo, as he is known, says when asked why he hasn't sold the restaurant. “I have it for sale, in case someone wants to set up a pizzeria, but not with this name, or any other catering business,” he concludes.