World’s oldest restaurant faces a problem from one other tavern | EUROtoday

Sobrino de Botín has proudly held the coveted Guinness World Record because the world’s oldest restaurant since 1987.

Exactly 300 years after it opened its doorways within the coronary heart of Spain’s capital, Botín welcomes droves of each day guests hungry for Castilian fare with a facet of historical past.

But away from the well-trodden vacationer paths, a country tavern named Casa Pedro makes a daring declare.

Its homeowners declare the institution on the outskirts of Madrid endured not simply the Spanish Civil War within the Nineteen Thirties and the Napoleonic invasion within the early 1800s, however even the War of Spanish Succession firstly of the 18th century — a lineage that might make Casa Pedro older than Botín and a powerful contender for the title.

“It’s really frustrating when you say, ‘Yes, we’ve been around since 1702,’ but … you can’t prove it,” mentioned supervisor and eighth-generation proprietor Irene Guiñales.

“If you look at the restaurant’s logo, it says ‘Casa Pedro, since 1702,’ so we said, ‘Damn it, let’s try to prove it.’”

Guiñales, 51, remembers her grandfather swearing by Casa Pedro’s age, however she was conscious that decades-old rumour from a proud old-timer would not be sufficient to show it.

Her household employed a historian and has up to now turned up paperwork relationship the restaurant’s operations to no less than 1750.

That places them inside placing distance of Botín’s document.

Clients and rivals

Both taverns are family-owned. Both supply Castilian classics like stewed tripe and roast suckling pig. They are embellished with charming Spanish tiles, characteristic ceilings with uncovered picket beams and underground wine cellars. And each take pleasure in a wealthy, star-studded historical past.

Botín’s celebrated previous features a roster of literary patrons like Truman Capote, F. Scott Fitzgerald and Graham Greene. In his e book “The Sun Also Rises,” Ernest Hemingway described it as “one of the best restaurants in the world.” While Casa Pedro may not have boasted the same artistic pedigree, it boasts its own VIPs. Its walls are adorned with decades-old photographs of former Spanish King Juan Carlos I dining in one of its many rooms. The current Spanish monarch, King Felipe VI, dines there, too, albeit more inconspicuously than his father.

But the similarities between the two hotspots end there.

Casa Pedro was once a stop on the only road heading north from the Spanish capital toward France. Its clientele is largely local regulars, like David González and Mayte Villena, who for years have spent every Friday lunching at the tavern.

“It wouldn’t change a thing for us,” Villena mentioned concerning the restaurant sometime securing the Guinness title.

Botín, alternatively, is a stone’s throw from Madrid’s famed Plaza Mayor, the place any day of the week, tour guides are herding teams round city — and infrequently straight by the restaurant’s entrance door.

Antonio González, a third-generation proprietor of Botín, concedes that the Guinness accolade awarded in 1987 has helped enterprise, however mentioned the restaurant had sufficient historical past to attract guests even earlier than.

“It has a certain magic,” he mentioned.

Pretenders to the crown

The query then turns into: How can both restaurant definitively declare the title? Guinness supplies its particular tips for the superlative solely to candidates, in line with spokesperson Kylie Galloway, noting that it entails “substantial evidence and documentation of the restaurant’s operation over the years.”

González said that Guinness required Botín to show that it has continuously operated in the same location with the same name.

The only time the restaurant closed was during the COVID-19 pandemic, as did Casa Pedro.

That criteria would mean that restaurants that are even older — Paris’ Le Procope, which says it was founded in 1686, or Beijing’s Bianyifang, founded in 1416, or the 1673-established White Horse Tavern in Newport, Rhode Island — aren’t eligible for the designation.

La Campana, in Rome’s historic centre, claims over 500 years of operation, citing documents on its menu and in a self-published history. Its owners say they have compiled the requisite paperwork and plan to submit it to Guinness.

A dream for Casa Pedro

Guiñales and her husband couldn’t consult archives from the former town of Fuencarral, now a Madrid neighbourhood. Those papers went up in flames during the Spanish Civil War. Instead, they delved into Spanish national archives, where they found land registries of the area from the First Marquess of Ensenada (1743-1754) that showed the existence of a tavern, wine cellar and inn in the small town as of 1750.

In their spare time, the couple continues to hunt for records proving that Casa Pedro indeed dates back to 1702, as is proclaimed on its walls, takeout bags and sugar packets.

But even if they dig up the final documents and wrest the Guinness honour from Botín, Guiñales concedes that her restaurant’s quiet location makes it unlikely to draw Botín’s clientele in central Madrid.

“To think that we could reach that public would be incredible,” Guiñales mentioned. “It’s a dream, but it’s a dream.”