Anchovy lasagna: a dish with 20 years of history.
“Reborn, enjoy again after 30 years” that is for the two partners and friends, Fernando Canalaes and Mikel Population, this new and ambitious double adventure to which they have launched.
After 19 years at the helm of Etxanobe, one of the five restaurants in Bilbao with a Michelin Star, in the Euskalduna Palace, they have moved to the center of the capital of Biscay and have created: The Pantry of Etxanobe Y The Etxanobe Atelier (where the Star follows) . Two restaurants in one, in the same place, with two different entrances, the same kitchen, the same idea: love and respect for the product, adoration of traditional Biscayan cuisine with a twist. As the two chefs learned from childhood.
“An Etxanobe of product and an Etxanobe of creativity”, summary to define both proposals and complementary concepts. La Despensa can be for every day, El Atelier for a unique experience (which can be repeated). The Pantry is the informal, the Atelier the formal. In La Despensa you eat à la carte (or with a menu of a selection of their dishes), in El Atelier there is a tasting menu with 14 dishes (“Each one has an average of 15-16 products”, says Canales). Both have the same origin and seek the same goal: "Enjoy".
A traditional restaurant... but different.
Enjoy: that is cooking for these two chefs from Bilbao who, when asked how they started in this world, both return to their childhood and their parents. The man from Canales took him to see the anchovy fishery. The one from Population was the one who cooked at home.
“The baby squids in their ink were his star dish. You eat them with your eyes closed and you know they are his,” he says. And that is also a bit what they are looking for for the diners who come to either of their two houses. “Our cuisine is ephemeral, our memories are forever”, they say in a video that is projected on your table at the beginning of the experience at El Atelier. With their dishes they want to enter the selective memory of each one, that you get out of there and remember them forever.
Tuna chop: the coals are a seasoning.
And it seems that they have achieved it and will continue to achieve it. In the menu of La Despensa they have dishes that have been accompanying them for almost two decades, authentic stars of your kitchen, like anchovy lasagna, that their most loyal customers continue to demand.
But they also want to renew and surprise them and the new ones to come, after 19 more years attached to Euskalduna, now they are free to unleash their creativity. Your kitchen is your R&D department, they say, where each member of the team plays a crucial role.
as a novelty in La Despensa they have introduced embers. “The embers as dressing”, says Fernando Canals. Where they make the anchovies, the kokotxas or the cow chops that mature in front of the diner in that pantry that they receive at the entrance of the place and that gives meaning to the name.
Fernando Canales and Mikel Población, chefs and friends.
“It's called La Despensa because we like being chefs, because it's part of all this,” says Canales. In it they keep the meat, shellfish, fish and vegetables that the client is going to consume. “Everything flows, everything is in sight, there are several environments in the place, but from all of them you can see the movement of what is happening in the restaurant, and the waiters are part of the party”.
In the local he sends the metal, the leather and the velvet sofas. The exposed brick walls. An almost industrial decoration, designed by the Verno studio, but that is cozy thanks to what they put on the table and the service. “It's a mise-en-scène – says Canales pointing – with traditional cuisine”.
Tuna tortellini.
WHY GO
Because the people of Bilbao cannot be wrong. And if in little more than two months that they have been open, they have come en masse, it is because it is something special. It is a party of products and cuisine of always. Because anchovy lasagna deserves a trip to Bilbao and then, if that, you go through the Guggenheim.
ADDITIONAL FEATURES
Desserts. Even if you get carried away by your eyes before such a feast of product and eat starter, meat and fish, leave room for dessert. The same Fernando is there and delights you with one of his orange juice and white chocolate croquettes that he makes at the moment and melts in your mouth.
Modern aesthetics for a kitchen of flavor.
Address: Calle Juan Ajuariaguerra, 8 See map
Telephone: 944 42 10 71
Schedule: From Monday to Thursday from 1:00 p.m. to 3:30 p.m. and from 8:00 p.m. to 11:00 p.m. Friday and Saturday from 1:00 p.m. to 3:30 p.m. and from 8:00 p.m. to 11:30 p.m. Sundays closed.
Half price: €60/80