Some cities look at their history; Madrid is not one of them. The manufacturers are famous for the crushing of the features of the period. Tourists can leave without learning the name of a single Spanish monarch.
The entire Madrid brand is to live in the present. Come for the mornings of the gallery, the afternoon of the place, the evenings in stadiums and bars. The previous centuries have too many complications: the city history museum suddenly ended in 1930, just before the civil war could put any uncomfortable.
Which makes Botín incongruous. This restaurant, a few steps from Madrid's Plaza Mayor, is recognized by the Guinness Book of Records as the oldest in the world. This year, he celebrates his 300th birthday. Its facade is dotted with sufficient Guinness certificates so that you can confuse it with a particularly picturesque Irish pub.
The distinction is clearly good for business: The website told me that the next table available was in three weeks. But I was wondering if the title of “the oldest restaurant in the world” could be like the title of “the oldest person in the world” – the avant -round sign of bad news. Could a restaurant bear such a tradition of tradition without being consumed?
Botín, The Story Going, was created as an inn in 1725 by the nephew of a French cook Jean Botín (his full name is Loot – Botín nephew). It was a time when Madrid lacked the elimination of wastewater or reverbers; The Prado museum was not built, the boulevard where it is now was only a ravine; Atocha was a monastery, not a world station. On the old cards, you can see Botín's house, Calle de Cuchilleros (Cutlers' Street), bent as it does today: it's too central to have been in Bulldozer.
Restaurants go bankrupt because of wars and pandemics, due to investment capital and public violence, because their food does not correspond or that their owner does not stay. If they avoid these traps, their leases expire or their ambitions develop: they move. But Botín worked on the same site in Madrid even if Napoleon, Franco and Covid-19 came and came. Goya would have made a passage to clean the dishes around 1765, fortunately well before his dark period.
For the first century of Botín, the Spanish law dictated to the inns could only cook food that visitors themselves have brought. The stone oven – large enough to adapt to 14 breastfeeding pigs – would never have been extinguished. During the pandemic, a cook would place firewood every day: the owners fear that, if it would cool, it would collapse.
The restaurant takes place on four floors, including the wine cellar which dates back to 1590. My companion and I were sitting on the first, alongside blue and white tiles, fine wooden beams – and many tourists. The Spanish guests come to Botín, but we haven't seen it. This is the tourist's dilemma: in our desire to find authentic Spain, we find ourselves in places with very few Spaniards. Botín does not have the spontaneity that the inhabitants could bring; The guests almost play a role.
Spring / summer day menu is gazpacho followed by a sucking pig and an ice cream, served with a glass for € 59. There are baby eels for 180 €, but otherwise the menu is Spanish classics: roasted lamb, roast chicken, fried calmar. There is also Sangría, the tourist nectar. It is Spain in capital letters.
Later, when I spoke to the great head of the cramped kitchen, Ruben Manzaneque, he admitted that Botín was not a place for novelty: “It was a challenge when I started. I had to replace my creative instinct.” During his decade in charge, “I think we have changed two dishes and a garnish!” But, he insisted, the processes had modernized, as well as health and safety.
In addition, the ingredients were good and the charcoal stove – of a type that is no longer allowed to be installed – gave the meat smoke. Botín was not there to win prizes, he said, even if I later noticed a certificate supervised by the bar: a 1991 prize from the Madrid Association of Public Relations.
Let's not be cynical. The pig of milks moved people. When the Colombian politician Ingrid Betancourt was held hostage in the 2000s, another prisoner delighted him with stories from Botín; Once free, they had a joyful evening here.
We found that the service had the sudden urgency of a battlefield. An occasional tradition in Spanish restaurants is to give guests what they should have, not what they ask. A young server – blocks white and black – offered us wine: when we said yes, he asked any other question but simply brought a viña Salceda Rioja 2020. After Brexit, some Europeans know better than give an English choice.
By the way, all Botín servers are men. The chiefs are authorized, but the last one recently left. She appreciated the work but found the transport of huge physically demanding pots, told me Manzaneque. Tradition cuts in both directions.
My gazpacho, the color of the soft sunburns, was not distinguished. But the garlic and egg soup was better, my companion assured me, and the dessert – a variation on the Basque cheesecake – was well done. Overall, the box was checked.
The Botín management family since 1930, the González, once opened branches in Miami, Mexico and Puerto Rico; Everything failed, and you can understand why. Without history and decoration, Botín would lose its charm.
The restaurant may not hold its title forever. Located in the northern outskirts of Madrid, on the old road to France, Casa Pedro claims to be older than Botín – founded in 1702 by the same family that manages it today. Unfortunately, all the files were burned in the civil war. He hired a historian. For the moment, its location means that it attracts few tourists. “We have to fight every day,” said her current manager Irene Guiñales.
Back in Botín, I went out on the sidewalk and I heard a guide explaining that Ernest Hemingway himself had visited the restaurant. “Okay, he went everywhere,” added the guide, laughing. In front of us was a store selling official shirts from Real Madrid – each more expensive than our meal for two. On the media and authenticity market, Botín did not seem an unreasonable option. If this pushes the many visitors to Madrid to consider the past, it deserves at least part of its fame.
Booty's nephew is to cook Street 17; Botin.es
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