| Sobrino de Botín | |
| Pushpin Map: | Spain |
| Established: | (restaurant) (cellar) |
| City: | Madrid |
| Country: | Spain |
| Coordinates: | 40.4142°N -3.708°W |
Sobrino de Botín is a Spanish restaurant in Madrid.[1] [2] The artist Francisco de Goya worked in Café Botín as a waiter while waiting to get accepted into the Royal Academy of Fine Arts. The restaurant is mentioned in an Ernest Hemingway novel and the book Fortunata y Jacinta by Benito Pérez Galdós (published 1886–1887). It is the oldest operating restaurant in the world.
The restaurant was founded in 1725 by Frenchman Jean Botin and his wife, and was originally called Casa Botín. Upon Botin's death in 1753, a nephew, Candido Remis, changed the name to Sobrino de Botín, which survives to this day. Sobrino is Spanish for nephew.
Apart from using the original recipes, the restaurant has also kept the flame burning in the oven continuously, never to be extinguished. The restaurant and its speciality of cochinillo asado (roast suckling pig) are mentioned in the closing pages of Ernest Hemingway's novel The Sun Also Rises.[3] Its other signature dish is sopa de ajo (an egg poached in chicken broth, and laced with sherry and garlic), a favorite pick-me-up with madrileño revellers.
In 2007, Puerto Rican actress Von Marie Mendez and her husband, Dr. Vicente Sanchez, in association with Sobrino de Botin, opened a restaurant in Ponce, Puerto Rico, named Botin. The opening of the Puerto Rican location was attended by several well-known celebrities, including former governor of Puerto Rico Rafael Hernandez Colon and then current governor Anibal Acevedo Vila, actor Braulio Castillo, Jr. and Mexican singer and actor Fernando Allende.[4]