It saw the Thirty Years War, William Shakespeare, Galileo Galilei, the Holy Inquisition and the French Revolution. It is approaching half a millennium of life. Here’s where he is and the fascinating story of him.
The OLDEST RESTAURANT in the WORLD
# The first news dates back to 1590
The oldest restaurant in the world is located in Madrid. The first news about him dates back to 1590. At that time the building was built that still houses the restaurant, known as Casa Botin, where the owner decided to open a tavern for wayfarers.
The Sobrino de Botin, this is the name of the restaurant, was taken over in 1620 by Jean Botin, a young French chef who decided to settle in the capital by taking over the old tavern. The official opening date of the restaurant, before customers had to bring food from home and the innkeeper could only sell drinks, is 1725 when a nephew of Botin’s wife opened a tavern inside the building, renovating it with the addition of a wood-burning oven still present today.
# The transformation of the restaurant up to today’s conformation
At the beginning of the nineteenth century a new renovation of the restaurant destined the entrance and the first floor to welcome customers while the upper floors for the use of the family. During the first decades of the 1900s the Sobrino de Botin was taken over by the young Gonzalez family made up of Amparo, her husband Emilio and their three children who transformed the place into today’s conformation. All 4 floors are occupied by the restaurant, the structure has been preserved as faithfully as possible to the original, and typical traditional Castilian cuisine is offered.
# Famous people who have dated him
Ernest Hemingway and Emilio Gonzalez, the grandfather of the current young owners, were close friends to such an extent that the writer asked the restaurant owner to teach them how to cook paella, but to no avail. Also Hemingway in the novel Fiesta mentions the restaurant and its specialties, the suckling pig in the oven. Another character, who later became one of the most recognized Spanish painters, was Francisco Goya who worked at Botin as a dishwasher before becoming a true artist. Two frequent visitors to the restaurant were the famous writers Truman Capote and Francis Scott Fitzgerald.
FABIO MARCOMIN
