Nostalgia in Madrid

A chilly day in Madrid.  It was February 2011 and I was on my way back, for lunch, to a restaurant I first knew in 1965.  

I had been walking up the Gran Via in June 1965, my first month living in Madrid. The Gran Via, as now, was a bustling busy street – but then it had a shabby feel to it. It was the main shopping street in a city climbing out of being third world.  It was after two, time for lunch – a Madrid lunch - but I had not yet decided where to have it.

“Excuse me. Sabe Usted Restaurant Estrella?” a foreign voice asked me. I hadn´t a clue – never heard of it. But the asker was tall, blonde and attractive.

“No, but I´ll help you find it, if you like,” I replied.

We found the Restaurante Estrella, in Calle de la Estrella, just off San Bernardo, and had lunch together. She was Australian and on her way to meet her sister, arriving from Sydney by boat to Marseilles.  The restaurant was agreeable, with the sort of atmosphere you get in places with good food. It was nearly full, so we had to wait a while for a table.  The fixed price menu, consisting of three courses and a half bottle of wine, cost Pts. 30 (the equivalent of € 0. 18). The food was superb and we sat over lunch for over two hours, finishing with “copas” on the house.  In the two years I was in Madrid, before moving on to Barcelona, I went back to the Estrella frequently, at least twice a week and often more.  I introduced many people to it and all raved about it.  Mondays and Thursdays were big days, with paella and cocido Madrileño on the menu and, always, long waits for a table. The owner was Pepe, short, tubby and middle-aged.  He had a couple of waiters to help him, as well as his wife and two other family members in the kitchen. One of the waiters was Paco, thin as a stick and full of nervous energy, rushing around with plates piled dangerously high.

After I left Madrid, I lived in Barcelona, Porto, Milan, London, Frankfurt and Barcelona (again), London (again), Rome and Malaga.  I went back to Madrid occasionally, but always only for a day or two, on business and, somehow, I never went back to the Estrella.  Probably, I was corrupted by expense-account restaurants, which were usually no better than Pepe´s place, but looked better on an expense account.

Then, one day in 2005, I was back in Madrid. This time I was accompanied by my third wife and,  again, it was a hot June day and lunch-time. We were in the Gran Via, near Calle de la Estrella.

 “Let´s go to the Estrella, for lunch”, I said. 

“Why, is it good?” my now-ex asked.

“Terrific – at least, it was 40 years ago”, I replied.

We went into the restaurant – and it was just the same!  Outside, Madrid had changed, into the fast, modern city it now is.  But the Estrella had not changed. The same three rooms, with the tables arranged in the same places. It still needed a coat of paint, but, as always, it was  full. We found ourselves a table and sat down.  Eventually, we were spotted and the waiter came over to our table with a menu. 

He stared at me, then said: “¡Hombre!   ¿Donde has estado, todo este tiempo?”

He clapped me on the back and we shook hands.  It was Pepe, the owner, who had hardly changed.  Still tubby and middle-aged, with a little less hair now  -  I would have recognized him immediately, even if I had met him out of context.  Then I spotted Paco, one of his two waiters from forty years ago.  Also, unchanged.  Still stick-thin, still rushing about, using up the same  amount of nervous energy.  He came over to the table, having recognized me, and, again, there was more backslapping and hand-shaking.  The food was just as good as I remembered it, though the menu-del-dia had gone up to € 15.   I wanted to go back again, during that trip, on the last evening,  but wife no. 3 wanted to go to Botins and she won the argument.  It was not long after that that we separated!

Now, it was June 2011 and there I was again.  Going to have lunch at the Estrella, nearly fifty years  since I first went to it!  Alone, this time, as wife no. 3 had long gone the same way as no.s 1 and 2.  I walked down San Bernardo, from the Gran Via, and took the third turning off to the right.  Calle de la Estrella.  I noticed that at the far end of the road, there was a space, where they had torn down an old building.  More changes to the Madrid I loved!  I neared the end of the street, where the Estrella was.  Amazingly, wife no. 1, had lived exactly opposite the Estrella when we met – but I met  the Estrella before I met her.  I looked across from her building.

The Restaurante La Estrella was gone!

   

In its place, there was now a slot-machine establishment.  Oh no!!  Pepe and Paco retired!  Their great restaurant closed, after nearly fifty years!  At least  Pepe had moved on before the great crash, so he had probably got a good price. I remembered he´d told me, in 2005,  that Paco was going to retire soon, so he probably decided to call it a day at the same time.  I didn´t dare enquire from any of the neighbours as to when or why the restaurant had closed,  for fear of unpleasant news. I wondered at how someone could take over such a wonderful popular restaurant  - and close it.

 It felt as though a chunk of my life had vanished with that restaurant. For decades, it had been a part of my life – the sort of place I could return to after a gap of forty years, and find it was as though I had been going regularly all the time.  And it was gone!