The González family has owned and run Sobrino de Botín for three generations, but will the fourth generation continue the tradition?

By  Glenn Garrido-Olivar

MADRID – The González family has made the restaurant Sobrino de Botín a family business for four generations. Each member of the family, from brothers to cousins, has worked in the restaurant to become a part of the business and help it continue.

The fourth generation has other aspirations, however, raising questions about the future of the restaurant, which the Guinness Book of World Records has certified as the oldest restaurant in the world (1725). Ernest Hemingway, whose regular table is memorialized, includes ­­Botín in the closing pages of his novel, The Sun Also Rises.

“My family is the third family that owns this business,” said Berta González, who is being looked at to become the fourth generation to run the restaurant. “Every single member of the family my age has to [learn the business] just in case something happens and we have to take care of it in the future.” 

Berta González, fourth generation González family.    (Photograph by Glenn Garrido-Olivar)

Complicating matters, however, are Berta’s occupational plans.

She is a graduate student perusing her master’s degree in education, and she says she dreams of being a teacher. When she’s home in Madrid, however, she helps out at the restaurant as a greeter and hostess.

“All the family, including me, are worried of losing the family line because I’m a teacher,” she said. “I’m not quite sure if I’m going to be working here in the future.”

Though waiters and cooks come and go, the González family is the constant.

“In the family business, it is useful that the young people practice on vacation, because we are currently on the third generation and preparing the fourth,” said Carlos González, who runs day-to-day operations at the restaurant.

He said he splits responsibility of running the restaurant with other third-generation family members – his brother Antonio González and cousin Pepe González.  

The more things change . . .

When a new generation takes over, they try to maintain Botín as the historical fixture it is and is expected to remain, from the look of the building to the original recipes passed down from founder Jean Botín. 

“We have taken care of the old recipes, the recipes that are passed down from parents to children,” Carlos said. “For us, it’s very important to conserve the traditional recipes because when a recipe has passed the test of time, it’s for a good reason”

The Sobrino de Botín recipes have been tweaked over the years, but never substantially altered.

“If you have a good thing, why break it?” Berta said, summing up the Botín philosophy. “We have a lot of good dishes, and we may change where we get the ingredients but we don’t change the recipe of how things are cooked.”

This sense of history and continuity explains much about the restaurant and its fabled place in Madrid’s culinary landscape. The González family makes sure all employees know the history of the restaurant and they teach them to care for the restaurant as if it were their own.

Raquel González, left, and her father Carlos González. (Photograph by Glenn Garrido-Olivar)

“We treat everyone like they are friends of the house, like they are family,” said Raquel
 González, another fourth-generation family member. Daughter of Carlos González, she is pursuing a degree in public relations. While she helps with the PR for the restaurant, she hopes to move on and branch out.

When she’s home on break from college, Raquel also helps out in the restaurant by baking some of the pastries and in serving as a hostess.

“I hope that it’s going to continue this way,” she said. “We have to keep improving, but always how we have been doing it.”

Botín at a glance 

• Casa de Botín founded in 1725 by Jean Botín.
• Renamed Sobrino de Botín by Candido Remis, Botín’s nephew.
• Located behind Plaza Mayor at Calle Cuchilleros, 17, 28005 Madrid.
• Customer list includes Ernest Hemmingway, Quentin Tarantino, Chuck Norris, Javier Bardem, Nancy Reagan, past kings and queens of Spain.
• Most popular dish: suckling pig roasted in the original 18^th century oven.
• Open from 1-4 p.m. and 8-12 p.m. every day.