When Restaurants increasingly tend to limit customers’ length of stayAt his De la Riva establishment in Madrid, Pepe Morán offers an ode to slowness, with menus you can enjoy without rushing, menus washed down with bottles of wine, and enough space to play around until the body can handle it. A traditional after-dinner meal to enjoy with friends and family who just got it. ‘Excellent desktops’ award The winner of the Schweppes Host Awards is at the Basque Culinary Center in San Sebastián.
After dinner at this Madrid restaurant, opened in 1932 by Antonio Maura’s chauffeur, at number 13 Cochabamba Street, next to the Santiago Bernabéu. sacred moment It may take hours.
A unique experience that combines the taste of home-cooked food, wine, 27-liter bottles served in jars and the promotion of a brand. comfortable and enriching conversation In many cases, it even serves to close important deals.
“We don’t open at nightso there is no need to rush,” explains Pepe Morán, who is proud of the audience that fills his restaurant every day.
between him most selected customers, King Juan Carlos I, before his self-imposed exile to Abu Dhabi. Madrid mayor José Luis Martínez Almeida, businessmen and Real Madrid executives are other regulars of this place, where the aseptic menu is replaced by a sung order. First the first meals and only after eating these the ‘seconds’ become toned.
Starting from two o’clock in the afternoon, the wine from 27-liter primate bottles is filled into wide-mouthed flasks. This is when the diners start arriving, choosing the first among them. Boiled potatoes with Iberian ribs, homemade lentils, kidney beans, pedrosillao chickpeas, rabas or bocartes.
“These first courses are usually meant to be shared,” says Pepe Morán, who sings the ‘seconds’ after this first feast: Aranda-style eel with green sauce, baked veal breast and all kinds of fresh and fried offal in a pan with extra virgin olive oil.
At three o’clock in the afternoon, Morán and his team Manolo Escobar’s ‘Long Live Spain’ full audio The server invites some of the women enjoying the meal to dance.
“Normally people like it but it’s true “There are people who are offended by the song and flood my social networks with criticism,” he admits, resigned but not at all worried.
Amidst the chaos of the room where people play, the kitchen is open until six in the afternoon. “They play muş, dominoes or poker “They have different drinks until seven or eight in the afternoon when we close until the next day,” explains this hotelier who bought De la Riva 23 years ago.
The restaurant was founded in 1932 by Paulino de la Riva, chauffeur of Spanish politician Antonio Maura, who together with Alfonso XIII was five-time President of the Council of Ministers of Spain. At that time, Obdulia, De la Riva’s wife and the politician’s cook, was always on duty in the kitchen. “It was a cheap restaurant.“says the new winner.
In 2000, Pepe Morán purchased the establishment, determined to continue the popular spirit of De la Riva, which had revitalized Madrid residents’ after-dinner dining for decades.
“It was an honor for me to give this award to Pepe Morán,” says Schweppes communications strategist Irantzu Basterretxea, “because this brand has always been there in the after-dinner moments, in moments of disconnection when we gather with our customers and chat calmly with loved ones.” and why not We enjoy a good gin and tonic‘ he concludes.