Sobrino de Botín (Calle de los Cuchilleros 17, 28005 Madrid, Spain), founded in 1725, is the oldest restaurant continuously operating in the world, according to the Guinness Book of Records. The artist Francisco de Goya worked in Cafe Botin as a waiter while waiting to get accepted into the Royal Academy of Fine Arts. The restaurant is mentioned in an Ernest Hemingway novel and the book Fortunata y Jacinta by Benito Pérez Galdós (published 1886-1887).
The restaurant was founded in 1725 by Frenchman Jean Botin and his wife, and was originally called Casa Botín. It was inherited by a nephew called Candido Remis and had a name change to Sobrino de Botín, which survives to this day. Sobrino is the Spanish word for nephew.
Apart from using the original recipes, the restaurant has also kept the flame burning in the oven continuously, never to be extinguished. The restaurant and its speciality of cochinillo asado (roast suckling pig) are mentioned in the closing pages of Ernest Hemingway's novel The Sun Also Rises. Its other signature dish is sopa de ajo (an egg, poached in chicken broth, and laced with sherry and garlic): a favorite pick-me-up with Madrileño revellers.
Website of Sobrino de Botin