‘Pinas Sarap,’ granted rare interview by owner of world’s oldest restaurant

“Pinas Sarap” has been wandering through Spain, and in its most recent episode featured host Kara David getting not just a rare interview from Don Antonio Gonzalez, the owner of Sobrino de Botin, the world’s oldest restaurant, but a tour of the restaurant on Calle de los Cuchilleros in Madrid.

Restaurante Sobrino de Botin opened in 1725 by a French cook, Jean Botin, who married a Spanish lady known only as Mrs. Botin.

The Gonzalez family bought it in the 1930s, and it’s been with the family ever since. Don Antonio belongs to the third generation of Gonzalezes.

Botin, as it is often called, is recognized as the world’s restaurant in the world because it has never closed since opening day — not even during wars, recessions, what-have-you. It’s kept the same name and has done the same business.

The episode was pretty special because Don Antonio didn’t just give a rare interview — he even gave “Pinas Sarap” a tour. From the main dining hall, to the underground dining room, which happens to be the oldest room in the house.

“This is the only room left from an old inn that was here before Botin was founded. This is the room from at least 1518,” Don Antonio says.

From the underground dining room, he brought the Kapuso broadcast journalist to an ancient wine cellar below it, believed to have been built in the 1300s, and then to the first floor dining room, where American novelist Ernest Hemingway liked to dine.

The owner said they refrain from talking about Sobrino's famous clients, but Hemingway may have been the most important as the restaurant was inspiration for one of his books “The Sun Also Rises.”

“The last scene of the book takes place here,” said Gonzalez.

These days, Botin as it is called, is famous for serving delicious Spanish dishes prepared in the same traditional manner from several centuries ago.

And to this day, guests of Botin can enjoy the same conchillo that Hemingway enjoyed so much in his lifetime. — Margaret Claire Layug/LA, GMA News