Fernández opened the establishment on May 1, 1985. Zaragoza was different then, as were the streets surrounding the bar. American-style bars were nearby, heavy metal fans were beginning to arrive, and no one could have imagined everything that would come later. Four decades on, San Petersburgo remains open, still welcomes customers from its early years and retains a menu that its owner has transformed as the city, the neighborhood and the tastes of those sitting at its tables have changed.
Now he is the one who has to change. He turns 65 next year, and retirement marks the end of his time running the business. “It’s a tough decision, a very tough one, because I’ve been here for 41 years,” he acknowledges. His intention is to sell the establishment and close this chapter of his life, although there is another possibility: people who have worked alongside him could take over.
A TOUGH DECISION AFTER 41 YEARS
For Edu Fernández, leaving Bar San Petersburgo is not because the business has stopped working. Quite the opposite. “It’s a business that works, and you make the decision because you have to, because retirement age arrives. It hurts because we’ve created something beautiful that people like, where we do things differently from everyone else,” he explains.
He turns 65 next year and believes the time has come to close a chapter that began more than four decades ago. After so many years running the establishment, the decision is not easy, especially because of the relationship he has built with several generations of customers.
His first option is to sell. “Right now, I’m mainly thinking about selling it, forgetting about everything and taking it easy,” he says. However, the establishment’s future is not necessarily tied to his departure. If he does not find a buyer within the timeframe he has set, he already has two people willing to continue: his current waiter and a former cook.
“They will continue doing exactly the same thing, and I know it will work for them,” he says. For Fernández, that continuity is especially important. After four decades of developing his own way of working, he would like Bar San Petersburgo to preserve its kitchen, menu and relationship with a clientele that has grown alongside the establishment.
FROM ZARAGOZA’S HEAVY METAL DISTRICT TO A BAR THAT LEARNED TO CHANGE
When San Petersburgo opened its doors on May 1, 1985, the area was on the verge of transformation. “When we started here, there were American-style bars and heavy metal fans were beginning to appear,” Fernández recalls. A few years later, he says, those streets had become one of the main meeting points for this musical culture.
“I started on May 1, 1985, and after about five years, this had become the biggest heavy metal district in Europe. It was very unusual. It was a beautiful and very fun time,” he says. The bar grew in that atmosphere, amid packed nights, concerts and a concentration of venues that defined this part of Zaragoza for years.
There is one night that he remembers particularly well. “I always remember the peak of the area. I don’t know if it was in 1990 or 1991, when Judas Priest played a concert at the bullring. There must have been around 10,000 people. When the concert ended, at about 12:30 a.m., these streets were impossible to get into. The bars were so full that you couldn’t even get in or out. It was incredible. A very fun time.”
But that Zaragoza gradually disappeared. Heavy metal venues began to close, and San Petersburgo understood that it had to transform in order to survive. “We had to change and adapt to the times, because the heavy metal bars were closing one after another,” he explains.
His establishment managed to get through those changes with a simple idea: keep trying new things. “We’ve been changing, expanding and doing new things. In the end, I’m a cook, I love cooking, and that’s what we’ve always done. You keep reading, you keep learning and you keep doing things,” he sums up.
UNUSUAL BURGERS AND A KITCHEN RUN FROM THE BAR ITSELF
One of the hallmarks of Bar San Petersburgo over the years has been its variety of burgers. Fernández builds many of them around countries, territories or easily recognizable culinary references. “When creating the burgers, I always base them on what is typical of each country or on what we associate with that country in Spain,” he explains.
The idea might start in France, with its cheeses and Roquefort, move on to Germany with a sausage, or reach England through cheddar. Then comes the practical part. “I look at the cuisine and history of each place, think about combinations and then test them here with eight or 10 friends.”
Its wide variety of burgers, with multiple ingredients, is one of the bar’s finest features. Photo: Instagram
His next creation also stems from a personal experience. Fernández has been walking the Camino de Santiago for 18 years and has decided to turn that passion into a limited-time burger for Oktoberfest. It will be called La Peregrina and will combine octopus, Galician beef and an Arzúa-Ulloa cheese sauce. “It’s going to be something really special,” he says.
Behind the menu, he insists, are many hours of cooking that customers do not always see. “You go to many places and the fries are frozen. Not here. Here, you get up an hour earlier, peel a 15-kilo sack of potatoes, cut them, blanch them and fry them. That’s how it is,” he explains. The same philosophy applies to the rest of the preparations.
“Everything is homemade. All the sauces, béchamel, carbonara, purées… Absolutely everything. And always with top-quality ingredients,” he says. Even when cooking the burgers on the griddle, he uses extra-virgin olive oil. For Fernández, this way of working helps explain why some customers continue to return decades after their first visit.
The future will determine whether Edu Fernández’s retirement ultimately means the closure of Bar San Petersburgo or the beginning of a new chapter under different management. For now, this Zaragoza bar faces change after 41 years of hospitality, burgers and loyal customers, with a story that also helps explain how the city’s nightlife, streets and bars have changed since that May 1, 1985.
