The story of how three young people have resurrected the mythical Melo's croquettes in Lavapiés
It's five in the afternoon. Two hours to go until the legendary reopens Melo's and everyone inside is working overtime. nothing seems to have changed since its forced closure due to illness more than a year ago . The silver zinc counter shines like any other day, the walls continue to hold the old directories where the eight products of the house were chosen and the interior room continues with the same wooden tables as always . It seems that everything remains the same, immovable after these strange months.
But those who move in the office and the kitchen They are neither Ramón nor Encarni, their lifelong owners . The youth of the three boys is striking — under thirty — found behind the bar. Their names are Rafael Riqueni, Ignacio Revuelta and Alejandro Martinez . They have decided to embark on one of those adventures that only a place like Lavapiés can offer, an example of a well-understood neighborhood, neighborhood culture and bar essence.
“Respecting tradition, adapting to new times”. That was the first claim that resonated on social networks —where they were first seen— on January 27. The logo rebranding , which was already pointing out ways —despite the criticism that some dropped in those days— anticipated what was to come: “ We want to continue maintaining the essence of the premises, the same products and suppliers. Also the prices. We haven't uploaded anything ”, comments Riqueni, sitting on a stool, preparing what is probably one of the most notorious openings of what is that other culinary Madrid, far from Michelin stars, tasting menus and the fusion of foreign cuisines.
The neighbors and neighbors, old and young, approach when they see the white light of the fluorescents inside the premises:
- Are you open today?
— They open at seven, ma'am.
I will tell my niece that she really likes the croquettes here.
Melo's is back
These days, Rafa, Nacho and Álex, have noticed the affection of the people of Ave María street and its surroundings . “They ask us a lot if we are relatives, if they have given us the recipe for the croquettes and if we are going to do the same”, points out Riqueni. The first two answers are negative. The last one, and the one that most makes you breathe with relief, is affirmative. “ Our intention is to keep it the same as it was ”, explains Revuelta, from behind, trying to cut the tetilla cheese by hand, finely, as Ramón used to do; something not simple. "As you can see, it's going to cost us a bit," she says sarcastically. Emulating a way of life and a way of doing things for forty years is not going to be easy. Nevertheless, they are determined to do so.
“Almost now you are more punk making traditional food, than doing anything else ”, recalls Martínez from the kitchen. “I love signature dishes. But a registry change does not hurt. Something that hasn't been touched in almost half a century is always a good challenge”. He, the youngest of the three, at 27, knows it well. His training has been linked to gastronomic temples such as Zalacain, Streetxo or Coque , where he completed his final degree, after passing through the Basque Culinary Center . The kitchen he works in is tiny, two fires, with two giant pots . Twenty liters of milk are heated in one of them. It is the moment before the famous bechamel. In the other, meanwhile, Alex beats with relish. A rhythmic movement and very studied these weeks. “ I have invested one hundred percent of the time in the croquette . It is a symbol for this place and for the neighborhood. What if the texture, what if the batter, what if the color. There are a thousand stories."
NEIGHBORHOOD COLLEAGUES
Among those stories are his own. Nothing despicable. Alex's latest jobs have made him travel to New York and work at La Boqueria, Yann de Rochefort's emporium. “I was there for a year, until my visa ran out. We gave meals to hundreds of people and everything was divided into different batches to be able to function as well as possible, ”he emphasizes. After being head chef in a small restaurant in Murcia, the pandemic... and the call from Nacho and Rafa. “ It's a return home through the front door ”, he admits.
Stirring the new (and already famous) bechamel from Melo's
Nacho smiles. He knows very well what Álex is talking about. He also came back from the United States . There he taught as a teacher. “When I came he had the motivation to do something different. My family has always worked in the hospitality industry and I had that little thorn stuck ”, maintains Revuelta, whose surname is relevant because he helps to restore the family tradition to which he has been attached since 1966, the date on which his grandfather opened Casa Revuelta, the mythical tavern near the Plaza Mayor and which serves the best slices of battered cod in Madrid ; With permission, of course, from those of Casa Labra and the German Brewery.
At the end of 2019, his family sold the business. “At that time I couldn't get hold of him. But as soon as Rafa called me and told me that Melo's was free, I saw it clearly. ** I knew it wasn't that expensive, seeing the money they had given my family for Revuelta ** ", he clarifies. In this way they have been made with the purchase of the premises and the transfer. Nacho and Rafa, friends from the neighborhood. Students from the neighboring Santa Isabel school.
who we need now is Rafa, the most connected with Melo's . He was the one who set up the other two. “I was born of a fluke here next door. My father was in Madrid because he was recording an album, ”admits Riqueni, son of one of the most important guitarists of cante jondo: Rafael Riqueni . His father, from Seville, from Triana to be exact, was in the capital in 1990 recording what would be his second album for the Nuevos Medios label, My time . A polished masterpiece at the Musigrama studios, in Lucero, together with the Carmona brothers, Antonio Canales and Package to the palms, among other figures.
Melo's, the basic classic of Lavapiés
Riqueni is going to live just over two numbers from Melo's, at number 40 Ave Maria street . “Many days, the dinner plan was go down to Melo's, take croquettes out the window and take them home ”, He remembers. Those are years, the 1990s and 2000s, when just around the corner a revolution was taking place within flamenco. "Here next to it was the Candela, which was the nerve center of the whole scene ”, he observes. A place that had his father, Miguel Candela, Gerardo Nuñez, El Cigala or Enrique Morente as the talismans of the neighborhood.
LAVAPIÉS AND THE RENAISSANCE OF THOSE BARS WE HAD LOST
A succession of alleys, slopes and corners that were also transformed, to the heat of that new flamenco that permeated everything . To the slipstream of Casa Patas and the Amor de Dios school. Keeping the essence of what was the past, but bringing it to the present . Just like the bars, taverns and restaurants that were in the area. El Melo's is a continuation of a very Lavapiés tradition , where many businesses change owners, but they are still clinging to an invisible line that connects them directly with past history and time . Premises that have been minimally renovated, but that preserve distinctive details of what that place was originally: sometimes they are tiles, others a hydraulic floor and on many occasions a stunning tin counter.
Examples above and below Lavapiés are not lacking. On the same street, Ave María is Alfaro Wineries , which was very slightly transformed in 1997 by Ángel and Miguel, two of its partners. A little later, in 2000, they would do the same Piluka, Mamen and Elena with Wineries The Maximum , another well-understood emblem of what it is to look to the future, without neglecting the relationship with previous generations. Then came a multitude of small bars like the Benteveo , the more heart , the parrondo , Los Chuchis, Skirt , the Achuri, the Economic, the Fisna or the Lorenza.
With the owner of the latter, Xan Otero , I am in the Anton Martin Market . He has come to pick up an order at the offal store Luis Alvarez . Xan lived across from Melo's for a few years and knows how hard it is to run a business like that. “I remember that when he left home, at about ten o'clock, Encarni and Ramón were already working inside the bar. They never rested”, he assures. “ I like that these guys have kept it”.
La Lorenza, a Lavapiés tavern lady for those who are homesick from Galicia
Álex, previously, while lifting one of the pots with great effort, will tell me a phrase that will not be erased from my head: “ They tell me that here before there was an old lady doing this and I shit alive . Ole her art. What you see is half of what they did”. Encarni dispatched about 500 croquettes any weekend.
ONE WEEK LATER: TREMENDOUS SUCCESS AND QUEUES IN THE STREET
The queues during that Thursday, Friday and the weekend —due to the COVID restrictions, the capacity inside is very small and people must wait on the street— have been one of the images that happened in the Stories of friends and acquaintances . I take the opportunity to call Rafa and ask him how things have gone for them: “ Not even in our best forecasts did we think that he was going to do so well . On Saturday we ran out of croquettes, slippers, black pudding... All sold out”.
Rafa has remained in the room, while Nacho has been behind the bar and Álex in the kitchen. The griddle, the fryer and the beer tap —which has changed to Estrella Damm, by the way— have not stopped working. Like old times. Some have even told them that Sneakers —the giant sandwich they prepare with pork shoulder from Cárnicas Oriente, tetilla cheese from BAMA and bread from the Museo del Pan Gallego , exactly the same vendors as before—they are a bit tastier because they put less butter on the slices.
“We have to polish some things. But I think we are on the right track,” he explains. The comments on networks leave no room for doubt: “I have already been twice and everything is very good. Thanks for being there . Waiting for the cod that will surely be as good as in Casa Revuelta”. Because that's the other big surprise: they are determined to introduce, when they have time and see that everything is possible, the famous cod of Nacho's family . Now there is only raise our Ribeiro basins and toast to them.
Address: Ave Maria, 44. 28012, Madrid See map
Schedule: Wednesday, Thursday and Friday from 7:00 p.m. to 11:00 p.m. Saturdays from 1:30 p.m. to 4 p.m. and from 7 p.m. to 11 p.m. And Sundays from 1:00 p.m. to 4:00 p.m.