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Despite a lawsuit claiming it stole recipes and confidential information from competitor Teleféric Barcelona, new Spanish restaurant Macarena says its February opening in downtown Palo Alto “will proceed as planned.”
Created by husband and wife David Linares and Elisabet Reviriego, as well as chef partners Toni Santanach and Sergio Box, Macarena is a traditional Spanish restaurant primed to open next month in the former Bird Dog space. But on Dec. 5, Linares’ and Reviriego’s previous employer Teleféric Barcelona served Macarena papers claiming the couple violated the California Uniform Trade Secrets Act and breached their contract and duty of loyalty with Teleféric.
In an email to this news organization, Macarena officials denied the allegations in the lawsuit.
“Teleféric Barcelona’s allegations are baseless, merely an attempt to stifle competition and hurt our reputation in the press,” Macarena officials wrote in the email. “Our recipes are entirely our own, and we stand by the originality and quality of our culinary creations.”
“We remain fully confident in our values and the steps we’ve taken to launch the restaurant,” Macarena officials continued in the email. “We are committed to delivering exceptional experiences for our patrons and look forward to serving the Palo Alto community.”
The lawsuit, filed in Santa Clara County Superior Court, requests monetary damages and injunctive relief from Macarena, with a case management hearing date set for July 11.
Teleféric, a Spanish restaurant with locations in Palo Alto and Los Gatos, hired Linares and Reviriego in 2019, with Linares eventually being promoted to director of operations and chief operations officer and Reviriego to chief marketing officer, according to the lawsuit.
In May, both Linares and Reviriego told the company that they would be resigning and returning to Barcelona, Spain, with Linares stating that he would be working for a new company overseas beginning in June, according to the lawsuit.
But before leaving the company, the lawsuit alleges, Linares downloaded almost 17,000 documents from Teleféric’s Google Drive to his personal account and Reviriego downloaded Teleféric’s entire customer marketing list. The downloaded documents included marketing materials, customer data and present and future product launch plans, according to the lawsuit.
Teleféric also believes Linares and Reviriego deleted their confidentiality agreements and the confidentiality agreement for Teleféric’s culinary director “because they intended to try to hire him away from Teleféric to work for Macarena,” according to the lawsuit.
“Teleféric asked Linares about the conspicuous absence of the three Confidentiality Agreements,” the lawsuit states. “Linares denied involvement but stated that if the Confidentiality Agreements were ever found, he and Reviriego would deny ever signing them.”
Additionally, the lawsuit claims that the phone number previously listed on Macarena’s website was the same phone number Teleféric purchased and provided to Reviriego so she could fulfill her job duties for Teleféric. The listed restaurant number later switched to the same number Teleféric purchased for Linares, according to the lawsuit.
Teleféric also claims Linares and Reviriego are using its confidential and proprietary information “to create a copycat restaurant in Palo Alto to prosper from Teleferic’s decades of work and innovation,” saying that Teleféric’s trade secrets likely helped Macarena’s ability to obtain financing.
In the lawsuit, Teleféric points to Macarena’s contract with the San Jose Sharks for the 2024-2025 NHL season, an agreement Teleféric alleges would not have occurred if Linares and Reviriego had not had access to Teleféric’s confidential client information.
The San Jose Sharks did not reply to questions on whether the lawsuit would impact their agreement with Macarena before press deadline.
Teleféric’s lawyer Daniel Bergeson could not immediately be reached for comment on the amount of monetary damages Teleféric is seeking.
Founded by the Padrosa family in Sant Cugat, Spain, in 1992 under the name Rondes, the restaurant’s nickname became “teleferic” due to a toy gondola above its entrance, according to the lawsuit.
In 2012, siblings Xavi and Maria Padrosa opened a second location in Barcelona, expanding to the United States in 2016 with a Teleféric in Walnut Creek. Following its success, the siblings opened restaurants in Los Gatos, Palo Alto, Los Angeles and Long Beach. “Plans are in the works to open locations in La Jolla, Seattle, and other locations in the United States,” according to the lawsuit.
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