The Battle for the Title
Sobrino de Botín’s claim to fame is that the restaurant holds the Guinness World Record as the world’s oldest restaurant. But here’s where things get really interesting. St. Peter Stiftskulinarium is speculated to have been operating since before AD 803, making it the oldest inn in Central Europe, and the oldest currently-operating restaurant in the world. The debate isn’t just academic – it’s stirring up food historians and restaurant lovers worldwide. On the outskirts of Madrid, far from the souvenir shops and tourist sites, a rustic tavern named Casa Pedro makes a bold claim, with Casa Pedro’s owners having combed through local archives and hired a historian to prove that the family-own tavern is the oldest restaurant in the world. Think of it like a culinary version of that friend who always insists they had the idea first. Guinness provides its specific guidelines for the superlative only to applicants, according to spokesperson Kylie Galloway, noting that it entails “substantial evidence and documentation of the restaurant’s operation over the years.”
The Spanish Contender
In the heart of Spain’s capital, Sobrino de Botín holds a coveted Guinness World Record as the world’s oldest restaurant, and exactly three hundred years after it opened its doors, Botín welcomes droves of daily visitors hungry for Castilian fare with a side of history. The building was built in 1590 and initially operated as an inn, and so as not to compete with the butchers that sold meat in Plaza Mayor (Madrid’s original marketplace), the inn wasn’t allowed to have a full-fledged restaurant. Picture this: you’re running a business but the local butchers’ guild basically tells you what you can and can’t cook. Upon Monsieur Botín’s passing in 1753, the nephew of Botín’s Spanish wife took over the management and renamed it “Sobrino de Botín.” Although all of the other restaurants on this list are much older, Sobrino de Botín received the distinction because it remains in its original building with the same interior from the 18th century. Antonio González, a third-generation proprietor of Botín, concedes that the Guinness accolade awarded in 1987 has helped business, but said the restaurant had enough history to draw visitors even before.
The Austrian Powerhouse
The oldest restaurant in Europe has been a welcoming host for over 1200 years. First documented mention of St Peter’s Stiftskeller by the scholar Alcuin of York, one of Emperor Charlemagne’s advisors, and in the year 803, the St. Peter “abbey cellar” was mentioned in the records for the first time by Alcuin of York, a courtier of Charlemagne. Here’s what blows my mind – we’re talking about a restaurant that was already serving food when most of Europe was still figuring out basic plumbing. It opened in 803 (yes, more than 1,200 years ago) and is in the same building as it as when founded by one of Charlemagne’s top religious scholars (which yes, kind of means Charlemagne was the first owner). As the restaurant has closed a few times throughout its history, it is not the oldest continuously-operating restaurant in the world; that is Sobrino de Botín in Spain, which has operated since 1865. But let’s be honest – if you’ve been in business for over twelve centuries, a few temporary closures don’t really diminish the achievement.
The Famous Flame
The kitchen’s wood oven, where many of the signature dishes are cooked, also dates from that year, and the flame in the oven has supposedly been burning continuously for 300 years – since the Botíns took over – never extinguished. Their jewel in the restaurant? The oven (el horno), which has not been turned off for 294 years. Even overnight, a heat is kept running and is lit in the mornings. Imagine being the person responsible for keeping that flame alive – it’s like being the guardian of culinary history. Sobrino de Botín claims that the flame in the oven has never been extinguished at any point in the restaurant’s history. There is actually a reason for this and it has more to do with running a restaurant than it does to tradition. Botin still roasts its famous meats in its cast-iron wood-burning stove—the same one used at its opening in 1725. Just under 300 years old, the oven still churns out delicious food—so delicious that the restaurant has attracted quite the clientele over the years.
Celebrity Dining Through the Ages
Jacqueline Kennedy Onassis, Charlton Heston, Ava Gardner, and Nancy Reagan have all dined in the world’s oldest restaurant, seduced by its striking interior and outstanding food. In my research I learned artist Francisco de Goya worked in Cafe Botin as a waiter while waiting to get accepted into the Royal Academy of Fine Arts. Jack Nicholson once said, “I’ll always remember the Botin restaurant in Madrid: such perfection when I bit into my veal cutlet, I almost wept.” And we will also come back to try the gazpacho and sole, which First Lady Nancy Reagan ordered when she and Spain’s Queen Sofia ate at Botin in May 1985. Francisco Goya, one of the most famous painters ever, worked as a waiter in Cafe Botín before being accepted into the Royal Academy of Fine Arts. Sobrino de Botín is also the setting for a scene in Ernest Hemingway’s novel “The Sun Also Rises”. Hemingway, well known for his love of Spain, placed the final scene of what would become his most famous novel in Botín’s.
Literary Connections
He wrote in 1926, “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.” Local legend states that Christopher Columbus, Johann Georg Faust, and Wolfgang Amadeus Mozart ate at the restaurant. Locals claim that Mephistopheles met Faust here, others say Charlemagne dined here, and some believe Columbus enjoyed a glass of its famous Salzburg Stiegl beer just before he set sail in 1492. In fact, even Faust is said to have visited the “Stiftskeller” in person. St Peter’s Stiftskeller enters the history of literature thanks to a 14th century poet and composer known as ‘The Monk of Salzburg’. The cellar area is significantly extended, and considered by Faust to be a place of quality.
The Architecture of Time
The world’s oldest restaurant is still housed among its original structure built in 803 at St. Peter’s Abbey in Salzburg. While the structure has been renovated and expanded numerous times, some of the numerous dining rooms, often decorated in grand baroque style and vintage chandeliers, are still carved into the stone cliffs adjacent to the Abbey’s original structure and has served royals, dignitaries and celebrities for centuries. Except for the 1970s-style couches, this room is all original — the abbey was built against the side of the Mönchsberg mountain in the 600s, which you can see quite clearly here. I wasn’t surprised to see that the world’s oldest restaurant had original carvings from the early days when the entire building was used for religious purposes. I walk through Botin’s arched brick walls, immediately spotting the walls covered with ceramic tiles depicting animals as they looked in the 1700s like deer and rabbit. Industrial chandeliers hang from the ceilings and heavy metal sculptures stand in stark contrast to the old black and white lithographs of an old Madrid and oil paintings of fruits and home centuries old.
The Food That Made History
It’s famous for its signature dish, roast suckling piglet – cochinillo asado – that is delicate with a natural flavor and a crunchy skin. Cordero asado – roast lamb – is the other roasted meat dish Botín is especially famous for. The menu and recipes at Sobrino de Botin have also remained unchanged since the 1700s. I had their popular Cochinillo Asado ($23.45) which is made in el horno. El Cochinillo Asado consists of a suckling pig with the most crispy and juicy skin you’ll ever bite your teeth into, and a side of medium sized whole potatoes covered in light olive oil and salt. A specialty to try is sopa de ajo, a local hangover remedy, made with an egg poached in chicken broth and laced with sherry and lots of garlic. The restaurant is particularly well known for its Salzburger Nockerl, a fluffy dessert dish served with lingonberry cream.
The Musical Connection
One of St. Peter Stiftskeller’s hallmarks is its daily Mozart Dinner Concerts, which are performed in the Baroque Hall by the Amadeus Consort Salzburg and consists of about six musicians and two singers who all wear period costumes. World première of the famous Mozart Dinner Concerts in the historic Baroque Hall. These have since enjoyed great popularity and are performed daily. But the reason most people know the town — and the reason so many tourists visit — is because it’s the birthplace of composer Wolfgang Amadeus Mozart. He was born in the old city in 1756 and the town’s annual Mozart Festival, which runs for six weeks every summer, brings nearly 200,000 attendees to Salzburg. So I wasn’t surprised to see that much of the decor in the oldest restaurant in the world looks like it’s straight from the 1700s and early 1800s. St. Peter’s is extremely popular during the Mozart Festival since it’s so close to many of the venues, so I wasn’t shocked to see a bust of Mozart in the hallway.
The Modern Challenge
But on the outskirts of Madrid, far from the souvenir shops and tourist sites, a rustic tavern named Casa Pedro makes a bold claim. Its owners assert the establishment endured not just the Spanish Civil War in the 1930s and the Napoleonic invasion in the early 1800s, but even the War of Spanish Succession at the start of the 18th century – a lineage that would make Casa Pedro older than Botín and a strong contender for the title. “It’s really frustrating when you say, ‘Yes, we’ve been around since 1702,’ but … you can’t prove it,” said manager and eighth-generation proprietor Irene Guiñales. It wouldn’t change a thing for us,” Villena said about the restaurant someday securing the Guinness title. Botín, on the other hand, is a stone’s throw from Madrid’s famed Plaza Mayor, where any day of the week tour guides are herding groups around town – and often straight through the restaurant’s front door. What I love about Sobrino de Botin is that it is obscenely popular amongst both popular Madrileños and tourists alike. This is not like a famous NYC restaurant where you only see tourists, but also is not the kind of obscure place that you would only know about if you were friends with a local.
Whether you’re standing in Salzburg’s stone-carved chambers that have witnessed over a millennium of history, or sitting in Madrid’s smoky tavern where Hemingway penned his masterpieces, you’re not just having dinner – you’re literally tasting history. Did you expect the world’s oldest restaurants to be this alive with stories and controversy?
