In honor of Cast
Thursday March 15, 2018 was the last day of El Palentino. After 76 years old on the same corner of Calle del Pez, in the heart of Madrid, he closed after the death of one of his regents, Chaste, the one who guarded the afternoons and nights, Loli's brother-in-law, who guarded the mornings behind that zinc bar. For days there were queues, many people to say goodbye. We all remember the cañas, the pepitos, the gin and tonics in a tube glass. It was a very heartfelt farewell.
The uncertainty about what would happen to that place, whose logo and concise and cheap menu had come to triumph in New York, was what scared all the regular and spontaneous customers who worshiped it the most. This Thursday, March 14, a year later, the fear has passed, it reopens its doors, changed, yes, reformed, too, but whoever is behind **Martín Presumed and Narciso Bermejo ** only have one end maintain the "egalitarian spirit" of the Palentino, which continues to be "a compliment to the everyday".
Casto, the owner of El Palentino.
The premises were bought by an investment group (for 1.3 million euros). They put it up for rent. Large restaurant groups were behind (it could have been a 100 montaditos), he ended up taking it Martin Presumed, the hotelier behind the popular restaurant Mama Chicó. Presumed then he wrote a message to **Narciso Bermejo (Macera Taller Bar, Craft Bar of Hotel 7 Islas) ** asking him to accompany him on the risky adventure of reopening El Palentino as an advisor.
Bermejo's legs trembled, he confesses. He is a neighbor of the neighborhood, he read the message while buying bread at the bakery in front of the bar. The last day that Casto entered the Palentino to work, it was he who opened the door for him.
"Destiny is like that, this really happened, it's not literature. I left work, I went home, I have a one-year-old boy, so he was very small and sometimes I would drink a beer to relieve the pressure, I was walking and I noticed that Casto was behind, I opened the door for him and then he began to say that he was feeling bad. Loli told him that if he had eaten, others to take his blood pressure, ”recalls Narciso. “I was completely torn apart by what happened. I drank the cane, I left and the next day Casto was dead”.
For him, like so many others, the “Palen” has been his bar “for all his life”. "In different sections, there was only one time that I didn't go because an ex we ended up with really badly, went a lot," he laughs. “But that was the Palentino, that is Malasaña. We have to accept this, we have to accept the changes”.
The interior of the renovated Palencia
“Changes are good, if you adapt”, they told him when he left Macera and he faithfully believes. So he tries to toughen his skin against the criticism they knew would be inevitable.
Because the Palentino has changed. To begin with, they had to throw it out whole. "We destroyed the entire bar because we had to bring it up to date with municipal ordinances," he replies. “In principle, we tried to maintain it, but for example you had to put a fireproof protector on the walls, you try to remove the bar and the dome to put them back, and They literally disintegrated.
“We kept the lamps and the lamps serve me as a metaphor for the haters”, he says. "We bought the lamps with the store, we cleaned them to put in new fluorescent ones, but there are no more, by law they don't let me put them in because they consume a lot, so they are as they were but with LEDs, which seem almost the same."
Moral? “Well, we are the same: obviously, there are going to be new things, they are going to hate me, but that's it because if I don't do it, nobody is going to do it. I have done it with the sensitivity of Casto and the approval of Loli, which moves me you don't know how”. And literally, on the other end of the phone, her voice cracks.
The tortilla, the 'must'
CHANGES AND BUSINESS
What has changed then in this new Palentino? input, Juanjo López has slightly updated the logo. Once inside, the bar is on the other side. The walls are full of photographs of Jonás Bel's classic bar.
The food has changed and no. “There are two lines: the one I put, the blackboard that are the sandwiches, more bravas and croquettes that there was not in the Palentino because there was no fryer, ”says Bermejo. "And then there's a offer that comes from Mama Chicó and is international. At first I thought how crazy, but now all these haters I'm sure they eat an avocado toast a week, and we're going to have avocado toast."
What stays the same? The gray hair. the cups Bermejo has created “a line of artisanal distillates prescribed for Palentino in honor of Casto and Loli and Juan”. “There are four gins, one of them thinking of what for me was a gin and tonic at the Palen: dry gin and Schweppes tonic. And another three thinking about what everyone likes after my experience in Macera, at the hotel”.
Artisanal distillates in honor of Casto del Palentino
Prices also follow. At least two days a week: Tuesday and Thursday from 4:00 p.m. to 8:00 p.m.: the cañas will cost €1.10 and the veal nuggets €2.5. (An effort considering that the monthly rent for the premises is €10,285).
Bermejo did an exercise in self-justification by asking himself. "What would Casto do if he turned 28 again and caught El Palentino?" In the answers he found he could fit much more. From the pepito to that avocado toast. Because in reality that was the Palentino, a bar where everyone entered without having to hide: from Esperanza Aguirre, to Andrés Calamaro, Álex de la Iglesia, and Edward Jones, the homeless man whom Loli calmed down with a chinchón and a baton and from whom De la Iglesia was inspired for his film El bar.
“What was important about Palentino?”, Narcissus wonders aloud. "The bar? No. The reeds? Nope, if people don't even remember that he changed the type of beer five times. What was important? the everyday, assume that you are normal, you do not have to wear anything different to go to the Palentino. You can be a movie star or be homeless, that was the Palentino. They will always treat you the same. And that, he promises him, will continue like this.
Torreznos from Palentino
Address: Calle del Pez, 8 See map
Half price: Tuesday and Thursday from 4:00 p.m. to 8:00 p.m.: €1.10 beers; nuggets €2.5