{"id":2623,"date":"2015-01-23T17:24:02","date_gmt":"2015-01-23T16:24:02","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/www.shmadrid.com\/blog\/en\/?p=2623"},"modified":"2016-10-13T10:46:34","modified_gmt":"2016-10-13T08:46:34","slug":"casa-botin-the-oldest-restaurant-in-the-world","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.shmadrid.com\/blog\/en\/casa-botin-the-oldest-restaurant-in-the-world\/","title":{"rendered":"Casa Bot\u00edn, the oldest restaurant in the world"},"content":{"rendered":"

Listed by Guinness World Records as the world’s oldest restaurant<\/a>, Bot\u00edn has been turning out impeccably\"Casa_Bot\u00edn-Madrid-2009\"<\/a> roasted meats from its original Castilian-style cast iron wood burning oven since 1725. Word said that even Francisco the Goya at the age of nineteen worked in the restaurant as a kitchen help before he became a famous painter. Jacqueline Kennedy, Charlon Heston, Michael Douglas, Pedro Almod\u00f3var and Ava Gadner all have dined as well in the world’s oldest restaurant. Legend or not, one thing is clear, Casa Bot\u00edn has been serving authentic Castilian food for over more then three centuries, and is still a very popular place, not only among tourists but also still with many Spanish politicians, famous people and even local habitants.<\/p>\n

But before Casa Bot\u00edn became Madrid’s tourist favourite, it was already a very popular spot among famous Spanish people and especially authors. The restaurant has served for centuries as an inspiration for many Spanish writers, such as Benito P\u00e9rez Gald\u00f3s, who mentions the restaurant in his famous novel Fortunata y Jacinta,<\/em> or Extremadura-born Arturo Barea,<\/strong> who dedicates a space to Casa Bot\u00edn in his most famous<\/a> work, The Forging of a Rebel<\/em>.<\/p>\n

Barea\u00b4s trilogy is a perfect portrait of the customs of Madrid, portrayed through the everyday trials and tribulations of a modest family (the author\u2019s own), from the beginning of the century to the Spanish Civil War. In one of the paragraphs, Barea writes:
\n\u201c\u2026she goes alone, or with one of us, to Bot\u00edn, an old restaurant in Madrid, and orders them to roast a suckling pig. She eats it alone – if we don’t go with her \u2013 with a large dish of lettuce and half a litre of wine.\u201d<\/em><\/p>\n

Not only Spanish writers were inspired by this even today charming restaurant though, countless foreign authors have also been seduced by its marvellous, 18th-century interior and its excellent, Castilian food. Famous author Graham Greene, who last visited Madrid in 1980 to give a lecture, also mentioned Casa Bot\u00edn in one of his last works; Monsignor Quixote (1982), a novel in which Green, although done in a moderate tone, confronts Marxism and Catholicism.<\/p>\n

When Father Quixote, a local priest of the Spanish village of El Toboso who claims ancestry to Cervantes\u2019 fictional Don Quixote, is elevated to the rank of monsignor through a clerical error, he sets out on a journey to Madrid to buy purple socks appropriate to his new position;\u00a0\u201c\u2026I suggest that before buying purple socks, we treat ourselves to a tasty lunch at Bot\u00edn\u2026\u201d.<\/em>Published in 1932, Monsignor Quixote is Graham Greene\u2019s last religious novel, a fond homage to Cervantes, and a sincere exploration into the meaning of faith in the modern world.<\/p>\n

More recent writers, like famous British writer Frederick Forsyth, mentions Bot\u00edn in his novels Icon<\/strong>, which is set in the convulsed Russia at the end of the 90s, and The Cobra<\/strong>, a thriller about international cocaine traffic. On page 146 in The Cobra we can read: \u201cDe Vega took her to an old restaurant that had been serving food when the conquistadors came from their homes in wild Extremadura to seek the favour of the King to send them to discover the New World. When he told her the story \u2013 complete nonsense, for the Sobrino de Bot\u00edn in the Street of the Knife Grinders is old but not that old \u2013 Letizia shivered and glanced around to see if the old adventurers were still dining there\u201d.<\/em><\/p>\n

Ernest Hemingway, known for his love for Spanish food<\/a> and wine<\/a>, had a special connection with Bot\u00edn and its owners. In his travels to Spain, Hemingway often visited Bot\u00edn and formed a firm friendship with Emilio Gonz\u00e1lez, father and grandfather of the current owners. By way of an anecdote, he was particularly keen on learning how to make paella, although his skills in the kitchen were somewhat less than his talent with the typewriter.\"hemingway<\/a><\/p>\n

Of all authors, Hemingway was known for his authentic love for Spain, its food, its people and its bullfighting. As a passionate defender of bullfighting festivals, in 1932, he published \u201cDeath in the Afternoon\u201d, an authentic portrait of bullfighting traditions, in which he also mentions Casa Bot\u00edn:\u201c\u2026but, in the meantime, I would prefer to dine on suckling pig at Bot\u00edn than sit and think about the accidents which my friends could suffer.”<\/em><\/p>\n

Casa Bot\u00edn also appears in his famous novel \u201cThe Sun Also Rises\u201d in which Hemingway mentions Bot\u00edn in the final scene of his novel: \u201cWe lunched upstairs at Botin\u00b4s. It is one of the best restaurants in the world. We had roast young suckling pig and drank rioja alta. Brett did not eat much. She never ate much. I ate a very big meal and drank three bottles of rioja alta.\u201d <\/em><\/p>\n

Yes, it\u2019s true that Casa Bot\u00edn is filled with tourists these days and yes, staff are keen to keep things ticking over and there\u2019s little chance to linger. But the novelty value is high, and the food served is still excellent, and worth trying out one day.<\/p>\n

Note: The Bot\u00edns died without any descendents, and the restaurant was subsequently taken over by their nephew, Candido Remis in 1868, which explains the name used by the business <\/a>ever since: El Sobrino de Bot\u00edn (Bot\u00edn\u2019s nephew).<\/em><\/p>\n

 <\/p>\n

\n
\n
\n
\n
<\/div>\n <\/div>\n
\n
<\/div>\n <\/div>\n
\n
<\/div>\n <\/div>\n
\n
<\/div>\n <\/div>\n
\n
<\/div>\n <\/div>\n <\/div>\n
\n
\n
<\/div>\n <\/div>\n
\n
<\/div>\n <\/div>\n
\n
<\/div>\n <\/div>\n
\n
<\/div>\n <\/div>\n
\n
<\/div>\n <\/div>\n <\/div>\n<\/div>\n
\n 5<\/strong>\n \/<\/span>\n 5<\/strong>\n (<\/span>\n 1<\/strong>\n \n vote <\/span>\n )<\/span>\n <\/div>\n<\/div>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Listed by Guinness World Records as the world’s oldest restaurant, Bot\u00edn has been turning out impeccably roasted meats from its original Castilian-style cast iron wood burning oven since 1725. Word said that even Francisco the Goya at the age of nineteen worked in the restaurant as a kitchen help before he became a famous painter. […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":10,"featured_media":2625,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":[],"categories":[1581],"tags":[503,496,495,493,492,502,494,500,499,498,497,501],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.shmadrid.com\/blog\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/2623"}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.shmadrid.com\/blog\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.shmadrid.com\/blog\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.shmadrid.com\/blog\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/10"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.shmadrid.com\/blog\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=2623"}],"version-history":[{"count":16,"href":"https:\/\/www.shmadrid.com\/blog\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/2623\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":7332,"href":"https:\/\/www.shmadrid.com\/blog\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/2623\/revisions\/7332"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.shmadrid.com\/blog\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/2625"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.shmadrid.com\/blog\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=2623"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.shmadrid.com\/blog\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=2623"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.shmadrid.com\/blog\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=2623"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}