Emmanuel Macron, the current French President, with his supporters in La Rotonde in Paris in 2017. Geoffroy Van Der Hasselt (Afp /
Cafe Milano opened its doors the same day Bill Clinton was elected president in November 1992. This Italian restaurant in Georgetown has since become a popular destination for the elite of Washington, a city that is like an amusement park of politics. Although dozens of restaurants in the District of Columbia have had and are proud of a president as an occasional guest, Cafe Milano is probably the most frequented restaurant in the city by presidents, members of the government, members of Congress, heads of state and foreign leaders, as well as Hollywood stars and members of the media. Furthermore, in a country as polarized as the United States, it attracts Democrats and Republicans, CNN and Fox anchors alike. A country’s politics are much more than its gastronomic history. They are institutions that the ruling class visits at its own discretion… or vice versa. Everyone from vigilante groups to deposed politicians have eaten and drank on the tablecloths of these establishments in London, Buenos Aires and Washington DC. Pacts were made and coalitions broken.
Image of La Rotonde in Paris in 1939. Heritage Images (Getty Images)
Brasserie La Rotonde is more than a restaurant where, like in Paris, you can eat onion and seafood soup, sole and tartare. During the presidency of Emmanuel Macron, it became a symbol of that president and the turmoil that surrounded his mandate.
One could say that, at least unofficially, the mandate was inaugurated right there, behind shiny windows and the red awning of this cozy cafe and restaurant, without being pretentious like that of Fouquet, the favorite restaurant of another president, Nicolas Sarkozy.
It was on April 23, 2017 in La Rotonde, where Macron celebrated with his colleagues and friends that he had qualified for the second round of the presidential elections. And La Rotonde has been a place he visits frequently ever since, privately or with guests like German Chancellor Olaf Scholz.
Because of his identification with Macron, he suffered several fires during this time. The yellow vests and demonstrators against pension reform believed that their attack was attacking the president. Its history and symbolism goes far beyond current politics.
The brasserie on the corner of Montparnasse and Raspail boulevards was frequented by the writers of the lost generation and the bohemians of Montparnasse. Also the Spanish exiles in the 1920s. Every day between 1:00 p.m. and 3:30 p.m. there was a Spanish gathering attended by, among others, Miguel de Unamuno. They sat in the back near a window overlooking Raspail Boulevard.
After World War II it was a meeting place for existentialists. In her memoirs, Simone de Beauvoir said that she drank her first alcohol there.
From Marc Bassets.
Buenos Aires: La Biela, pilots, police officers and writers
Sculptures by Jorge Luis Borges and Adolfo Bioy Casares occupy table 20 at La Biela in Buenos Aires.Ricardo Ceppi (Getty Images)
In Buenos Aires, on the corner of Juncal and Quintana, 100 meters from the Recoleta Cemetery and next to an ombú, the oldest tree in the city (it is estimated to have been planted at the end of the 18th century), the restaurant is located at The Connecting Rod.
It was founded in 1850 under the name La Veredita in an area full of cutlers, prostitutes and thieves. A few years later, due to its popularity among members of the Civil Association of Argentine Pilots, it changed its name to Aerobar: politicians of all stripes traveled through there. The neighborhood changed and the location changed. Around 1940, when motorsport became fashionable in Argentina, it acquired its current name and became a meeting place for lovers of this sport. One of his regular guests was five-time Formula 1 champion Juan Manuel Fangio.
During the civil-military dictatorship, members of the Argentine Anti-Communist Alliance (AAA), a right-wing parapolice group, visited there: Ramón Camps, head of the Buenos Aires police, had lunch there. In 1975, the Montoneros guerrilla organization declared it a “target location in oligarchic areas” and carried out an attack that caused a fire but caused no casualties.
The writers Adolfo Bioy Casares and Silvina Ocampo lived around the corner, in an apartment in Posadas. Bioy had lunch in one of the rooms of the restaurant and reserved table 20 to have coffee with his guests, who included Jorge Luis Borges. Even today, this table cannot be used in this bar with politicians, artists, secret services and journalists: on it there are two sculptures of the writers by Fernando Pugliese.
From Federico Bianchini.
Brasilia: The Piantella, democratic memory
A lunch in support of candidate Ulysses Guimarães in Piantella, Brasilia, 1989.Gustavo Miranda (O Globo)
When Piantella opened its doors in Brasilia in 1979, the city was celebrating two decades as the futuristic capital of a country that was still a dictatorship. The restaurant was located within Brazilian distances, near the area where the headquarters of the three powers and ministries are located. It soon became the meeting point of the opposition to the generals. They ate lunch and dinner daily at this eatery with an Italian name, long-time waiters, a sophisticated menu, and live piano music that was open until dawn.
For four decades, the Piantella was the great meeting place of Brazilian politicians, the stage on which they sought agreements (and counterparts). Its halls and private rooms reflected the ups and downs of the political class after the first glorious years in which various politicians banded together to rebuild Brazilian democracy. They lived on these two floors along with the journalists who went out to get the news.
On the menu was Filé Muscovita, a beef fillet with meat sauce, cream, flambéed with vodka and garnished with a teaspoon of caviar.
The “Diretas Já” campaign for the democratic election of the president was developed there in the mid-1980s. And the range of guests was later expanded to include cooking the 1988 Constitution.
When Lula made history in 2002, becoming the first worker to win the presidency and receive the corresponding diploma, he dined there with his friends to celebrate the first title of his life. Because Lula never finished school.
The Piantella closed its doors on August 31, 2016, the day the Senate impeached the first female president in Brazilian history, Dilma Rousseff. It was a fatal blow, although not the final closure. A new owner tried to revive it, but the pandemic destroyed it again.
From Naiara Galarraga Cortazar.
Washington DC: Cafe Milano, the second cafeteria in the White House
Café Milano in Washington DC, frequented by politicians, celebrities and journalists. Al Drago (The New York Times / C
Cafe Milano opened its doors the same day Bill Clinton was elected president in November 1992. This Italian restaurant in Georgetown has since become a popular destination for the elite of Washington, a city that is like an amusement park of politics. Although dozens of restaurants in the District of Columbia have had and are proud of a president as an occasional guest, Cafe Milano is probably the most frequented restaurant in the city by presidents, members of the government, members of Congress, heads of state and foreign leaders, as well as Hollywood stars and members of the media. Furthermore, in a country as polarized as the United States, it attracts Democrats and Republicans, CNN and Fox anchors alike.
The food is not memorable and the prices are not cheap. With surcharges, taxes and gratuities, pasta and pizza cost around $40, fish over $50 and meat around $80. The decoration is pleasant but not overwhelming. But the Italian Franco Nuschese, owner of Cafe Milano, has managed to turn it into a meeting place with his hospitality.
Bill Clinton is a regular. Barack Obama and Joe Biden also passed. There is no record of Trump being there, but several of his Cabinet members were regulars, as the Secret Service vans outside showed. One evening, their secretaries of state, finance and commerce met at separate tables, earning Cafe Milano the nickname “the second cafeteria in the White House.” Clinton and a star Fox anchor, Bret Baier, were also there that day. The Queen of Thailand, who brought her own silverware, closed it for two days for a private celebration. Brad Pitt and Angelina Jolie met on the same day that Michael Douglas and Catherine Zeta-Jones dined there.
Café Milano started with tables for 52 guests. It now has 300 seats with extended opening hours. Although the seating is reserved months in advance, it’s not difficult to get a table in the dining room or on the terrace and become part of the more than exclusive clientele.
From Miguel Jiménez.
Bogotá: Pajares Salinas, the taste of conspiracy
At Pajares Salinas, in addition to good food and good food, there are also delicious conspiracies, a Colombian columnist once wrote. The most powerful people in the country meet in this restaurant with dim lighting and eclectic style in the north of Bogotá. The richest businessmen and the political elite, the true patricians of the world, lean back in their soft armchairs. The Presidents of the Republic are paraded here one by one, with the exception of Álvaro Uribe, who refuses to scheme at their tables. The door of the shop is full of luxury vans, for which their honorable companions are patiently waiting. At the reception you are greeted by four waiters in charge of reservations (it’s not easy to find a place at short notice) who are ready to show you to an open space divided by minimal partitions. Everything is visible, no one can hide.
There are many coolers in the hallways where wines and champagne are chilled. The perfectly balanced tables are decorated with small vases of carnations. The menu is of Spanish origin with a slight French touch. A dim light lazily illuminates the dark corners, and that’s one of the successes of this place, where there’s hardly any cell phone reception: you don’t know whether it’s day or night out there. Lunch merges with dinner and ends in the elegant bar on the second floor, where classic armchairs fashionable fifty years ago and the original library of the founder Saturnino Salinas Pajares, a Spaniard who arrived in the fifties, await you. Colombia with a Suitcase, a recipe book entitled “The New Elegant Spanish Cuisine and the Chef’s Jacket”. The perfectly uniformed waiters listen to confessions that will later be news on the evening news, but discretion prevails and they see and hear nothing. Every day, a diner loudly – people also come to Pajares Salinas to be seen – closes a deal over the phone for $100,000, an insignificant amount when the people here are banker Gabriel Gilinsky or arch-millionaire Luis Carlos Sarmiento Angulo.
The president, Gustavo Petro, came to the campaign several times, but most often the first lady, Verónica Alcocer, accompanied by her coterie of Spanish advisers. It is known that people enjoy drinking here, but always within the limits of good taste. If this were not the case, three drivers would wait outside the door and drive the disabled person’s car to his holy house, put him in his pajamas and kiss him goodnight.
From Juan Diego Quesada.
St. Petersburg: Staraya Tamozhnia, the restaurant of Wagner’s boss
The Old Customs House restaurant (stáraya tamozhnia, in Russian) was the origin of the empire of Wagner Group owner Yevgeny Prigozhin, who died in an unexplained plane accident in August, two months after his failed uprising. Founded in 1996 in the heart of St. Petersburg on Vasilievsky Island, on the opposite bank of the Winter Palace, the establishment was where Prigozhin began to build his networks among Russia’s political elite. Among them was St. Petersburg’s Vladimir Putin, then the right-hand man of the city’s mayor.
The restaurant is located in a former customs headquarters from the 18th century, a reason that inspires its decoration, including some mannequins of tsar officials, although behind its particular style lies one of the most sophisticated restaurants in Russia’s “cultural capital”. The menu focuses on Russian gastronomy and some European variations of its dishes. His specialties include cabbage soup with sauerkraut and beef, braised beef with mashed potatoes and “fine pancakes with salmon and red caviar”.
The prices on his menu are high compared to other restaurants in the city, but acceptable given his fame, his central location and the fact that the elite who tightly control the reins of Russia march past his tables. A main course costs between 900 and 1,000 rubles, about ten euros in change, and any of their exquisite Slavic soups are worth half that. As for the wine list, due to the sanctions, the selection is as large as any other Russian restaurant. Their Spanish offering, Un Crianza Castillo de Albay (La Rioja) from 2017, costs 500 rubles, about five euros.
The establishment that made the Russian mercenary leader famous has four rooms, one for VIP customers and one for wine tasting. The restaurant also offers you the opportunity to reserve its rooms for organizing weddings and other private events.
From Javier G. Cuesta.
London: The Cinnamon Club, the sauce of Westminster
In front of the Cinnamon Club, LondonWilliam Barton (Alamy / Cordon P
For decades, a good curry was the height of sophistication for British palates. In this generic way, any dish of Indian origin or inspiration with plenty of spicy and spicy gravy was referred to. Until it became as national a dish as fish and chips or Yorkshire pudding. And Westminster MPs were no strangers to this exoticism. The rules of the game changed in 2001 when famous chef Vivek Singh opened the Cinnamon Club.
Just a five-minute walk separates the British Parliament from the old Westminster Library on Great Smith Street. A beautiful building of red brick and Victorian architecture, it houses the restaurant most frequented by Members of the House of Commons and Ministers of Her Majesty’s Government. At any time of the day you can see politicians with politicians, politicians with journalists or ministers with MPs at their tables, surrounded by a beautiful bookcase with fine wooden panels, with a huge collection of exquisitely arranged books, in an atmosphere that mixes the feelings of work, fraternization and of course of conspiracies and conspiracies.
Like the idea of curry itself, Vivek Singh managed to mix the most traditional essences of Indian cuisine with the Western recipes most appreciated by his clientele, in addition to giving the establishment a touch of functional elegance that was entirely to his taste those politicians, who are floating on a cloud after reaching London and Westminster, the center of power in the United Kingdom.
The Cinnamon Club was the venue chosen by Rishi Sunak, the first head of government in the history of the United Kingdom of Indian descent and a practicing Hindu, in September last year to thank more than 70 volunteers who had helped him take over Tory leadership. Then she lost to Liz Truss. Two months later, MPs elected Sunak as the new prime minister, saving the party from debacle.
From Rafael de Miguel.
Barcelona: Ca l’Isidre, politics through the side door
Reserved at Ca l’Isidre Restaurant in Barcelona.Albert Garcia
If the walls of Ca l’Isidre’s private room could speak, their secrets would be enough for a long political series in which agreements, dialogues, disputes and confrontations are resolved at a good table. With great discretion, this modern Catalan cuisine restaurant next to Paral·lel has fed the Catalan political class throughout its history, which now dates back half a century. Its founders were Isidre Gironès and his wife Montserrat Salvó, but now it is his daughter Núria Gironès who dominates this elegant dining room, a strange restraint where the white tablecloths look perfectly ironed and fresh flowers are never missing in the center.
In addition to a stylish dining room that does not follow any trend but exudes its own personality in every detail, Ca l’Isidre hides a private room with a capacity for 14 people, which can also be accessed through a side door without being seen by restaurant customers. Politicians of all stripes have used this secret entrance to meet with their accomplices or rivals in a neutral room and avoid snoopers. Several times each week it was occupied by two, three or four politicians at the same time and was also the scene of other celebratory meetings that filled the entire room.
In the memory of some is the day that Ca l’Isidre’s discretion was blown up when a blue Mercedes arrived at its door. It was the 1980s and Kings Juan Carlos and Sofia were in Catalonia on an official visit to coincide with May 14, their wedding date. Jordi Pujol and Marta Ferrusola nominated themselves as the best celebration partners and chose Ca l’Isidre for the occasion. Years later, some of the crucial meetings that brought the Olympic Games to Barcelona also took place in the coveted reserved area, with Pasqual Maragall and Joan Antoni Samaranch as key figures.
From Mar Rocabert.