When Spanish import Telefèric Barcelona, which started as a family-run restaurant in 1992 just north of Barcelona proper, opened in Walnut Creek in 2016, it was an instant hit. The 7,000-square-foot spot was quickly packed with diners clamoring for tapas and chef Oscar Cabezas’ signature socarrat-style paella. The second-floor hangout in Walnut Creek’s downtown was even named the East Bay’s best new restaurant that year by Diablo Magazine.

To some, the quiet East Bay suburb may seem like a surprising choice for a first United States location. But chat with Xavi Padrosa, who has co-owned the restaurant with his sister Maria in Barcelona since 2012, and the vision for Telefèric — which now has seven locations in California and one in Arizona — becomes crystal clear.

It starts with Padrosa’s love affair with California, which he first visited as a young semipro tennis player after landing a scholarship in the Bay Area. 

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“I was not going to be the next Rafa Nadal,” Padrosa says with a laugh in a phone interview. “But I could see myself moving to California.”

Telefèric Barcelona co-founder Xavi Padrosa.

A few years after the family’s modern iteration of Telefèric opened in Barcelona as a buzzy take on the family’s original restaurant, the Padrosas were approached by developer Brian Hirahara to open in his three-story, reclaimed brick-and-steel building on Diablo Avenue (which also houses Tony Gemignani’s Slice House at street level and wine-bar-slash-restaurant Rooftop on the third floor).

“He visited our........

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