As foodies, I’m sure we’ve all been to a ton of restaurants, and have had different dining experiences in all of them. However, there’s one dining experience I had different from all the rest, because I wasn’t just eating at a typical restaurant; I was eating at the oldest restaurant on earth! It was quite the experience, unlike any other, and for this reason, I’m here to share with you exactly what it’s like to be in one of the greatest cities in the world, eating at the oldest restaurant in the world.
As travelers do, when planning my trip to Spain this summer, I was searching the web for great places to eat and watching videos on the “must-try” restaurants in Madrid. During my search, I came across the following video which I immediately clicked on out of curiosity, called: “This Madrid Restaurant is the Oldest in the World.” This video is what initially led me to visit the restaurant and try its famous Cochinillo Asado (Suckling Pig).
Well known for its suckling pig and lamb, Restaurante Sobrino de Botin has a long history and long ago, was nothing more than a place where people took their own food to be cooked. It was previously not allowed to sell cooked food, as it would cause competition for other traders. Clearly, times have changed.
Restaurante Sobrino de Botin was founded in 1725 by French cook Jean Botin, who had moved to Madrid with his wife with intentions of working for a nobleman from the Court of Habsburg. Beginning as only an inn on Calle Cuchilleros, this landmark transformed into what we know today as not only Ernest Hemingway’s favorite restaurant, but as “restaurante más antiguo del mundo” in the Guinness Book of World Records, meaning the world’s oldest restaurant. Additionally, the name Restaurante Sobrino de Botin came after Botin and his wife had passed away without having any children. Their nephew, Candido Remis, took over, and continued to help the location prosper, thus revealing the name which the business has held to this day.
As an avid reader and writer, I was completely fascinated by the history the restaurant held (and the food, duh!). The fact that so many writers such as Scott Fitzgerald and Graham Greene had mentioned it in their literature was astonishing to me, because it was like visiting a make-believe place in a book, but this time in real life. Among the list of writers who featured this landmark, is the popular and one of my favorites, Ernest Hemingway. In his novel, Death in the Afternoon, he says
“…but, in the meantime, I would prefer to dine on suckling pig at Botín than sit and think about the accidents which my friends could suffer.”
Botin also appears in another work of Hemingway, The Sun Also Rises, where he states
“We lunched upstairs at Botin´s. 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.”
After reading this, YOU tell ME how cool it is to eat the suckling pig that Hemingway literally wrote about in this story…I’d say pretty cool!
After hearing about Hemingway’s stories and also learning about his failed attempt at making Paella while visiting Botin, I truly marveled in the experience and took in the amazing stories the restaurant held. This was obviously in addition to the delicious food that was cooked in the still-functioning cast iron wood burning stove that was used when it first opened in 1725.
Now lets get down to business… the food! When I first arrived, I was greeted with big pieces of freeform baked bread to enjoy with butter. Afterwards I was able to delve into juicy and tender Cochinillo Asado with a side of boiled potatoes that paired perfectly with the pork. I truly felt like a storybook character enjoying the cochinillo that Hemingway raved so much about.
Overall, this restaurant is definitely an experience to be had that I would recommend to anyone if they are given the opportunity. Essentially, there is no experience that could compare to sitting down and dining among the three hundred years of history that the restaurant holds within it. The food is remarkable and I truly believe that you’ll feel like you are in a novel savoring suckling pig just as Ernest Hemingway wrote it out to be. Just ensure you make a reservation because you aren’t the only one with a bucket list to fulfill!