Shrewsbury tapas restaurant which grew from a dream and a market stall looks ahead to 2025 after new year break

AleOli y Tu at 166/167 Frankwell, next to the Welsh Bridge, will reopen on January 16. The business is celebrating heading into its 11th year of business in 2025, its story having begun in 2014.

Inspired by nine years living on the Costa de la Luz, owner, manager, front-of-house chief and “one-woman band” Fran O’Shea entered the world of hospitality when she decided to take on a stall in Shrewsbury Market Hall in 2014.

Fran lived in Ayamonte, southwest Spain between 2002 and 2011. Her daughter Olivia went to Spanish school and her son Alejandro was born there, while Fran was introduced to the ingredients and flavours of traditional Spanish cuisine by local women, who gave her advice for making the perfect patatas bravas and tortillas.

Those lessons would stand Fran in good stead when the family returned to England. Fran, Olivia and Alejandro moved to Shrewsbury in 2011 to be closer to Fran’s family. Fran was working in education when she found out a Lebanese food stall she frequented in Shrewsbury market was closing down, offering a unique opportunity.

“I had never done it before, but the opportunity to take over the stall was too exciting to pass up," she said. "It seemed like the perfect opportunity to celebrate my passions for cooking and Spanish cuisine."