{"id":23995,"date":"2024-02-15T13:24:06","date_gmt":"2024-02-15T13:24:06","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/basqueluxury.com\/?p=23995"},"modified":"2024-02-15T13:25:29","modified_gmt":"2024-02-15T13:25:29","slug":"echaurren-125-years-of-history-and-two-michelin-stars-attest-to-the-quality-of-this-gastronomic-hotel-with-francis-paniego-at-the-helm","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/basqueluxury.com\/en\/echaurren-125-years-of-history-and-two-michelin-stars-attest-to-the-quality-of-this-gastronomic-hotel-with-francis-paniego-at-the-helm\/","title":{"rendered":"Echaurren: 125 years of history and two Michelin stars attest to the quality of this gastronomic hotel with Francis Paniego at the helm"},"content":{"rendered":"
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It is not an easy task to get a family business to last generation after generation, and it is even more difficult for a family’s passion to remain alive over 125 years of history. That\u2019s exactly what they have achieved at Echaurren, a hotel and member of Relais & Ch\u00e2teaux because of its quality. The family business additionally has four restaurants: Echaurren Tradici\u00f3n, El Portal, El Cuartito Bistro, and Sal\u00f3n de la Chimenea Tapas Bar. <\/span><\/p>\n<\/div>\n

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Located in the beautiful town of Ezcaray, Echaurren offers a unique experience that combines rural luxury and haute cuisine in a century-old house completely renovated by the Picado de Blas architecture studio of Madrid \u2013 professionals who have managed to transform this old posthouse into a beautiful and cozy hotel. The architects have put a contemporary and respectful spin on all the history that the house treasures, as well as its privileged environment. The renovation is full of current and modern reminders of the establishment’s legacy thanks to the materials, fabrics, furniture, and spaces which open to the outside (a beautiful square that houses the impressive Gothic church-fortress built between the twelfth and fourteenth centuries).<\/span><\/p>\n<\/div>\n

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At the end of the nineteenth century, Ezcaray was growing at the same rate as businesses in the mining and lumber sectors. In the center of this prosperous town,\u00a0<\/span>\u201cUncle Pedrito\u201d and \u201cAuntie Andrea\u201d (as they are affectionately referred to in Echaurren)\u00a0<\/span>decided to open an inn on the first floor of the building where they managed a stagecoach office and a tavern. That initial inn set in motion a culinary and hotelier tradition that has lasted to this day over six generations.<\/span><\/p>\n<\/div>\n

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Cristina, the niece of the founders<\/span>, took up the reins of Echaurren\u2019s kitchen in 1925. The restaurant had already acquired great prestige, although the post-war years were difficult. Cristina sold the business to her sister\u00a0<\/span>Julia.\u00a0<\/span>Together with her husband Luis, they ran the restaurant until 1957. The summers (still without tourists) and the long winters of Ezcaray were relieved by the pastries that Julia made in the arcades of the building. In that pastry shop, the couple’s youngest daughter, Marisa, would play, pretending she was a cook.<\/span><\/p>\n<\/div>\n

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With everything she learned from her great-aunt Andrea, her aunt Cristina, and her mother Julia,\u00a0<\/span>Marisa S\u00e1nchez took over at Echaurren when she was just 18 years old. Her husband F\u00e9lix Paniego took charge of the wine cellar and the business accounts. Marisa’s good work in the kitchen was recognized in 1987 with the National Gastronomy Award for Best Head Chef. Their croquettes, lamb feet, and Rioja-style potatoes left their mark on an entire era and made Echaurren and Ezcaray household names all throughout the country.<\/span><\/p>\n<\/div>\n

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At the end of the 1980s, Marisa and F\u00e9lix gathered the courage to completely remodel the facilities, with the re-inauguration being in 1989. It was then that their children stepped in to move Echaurren forward. Little by little, always with great respect for the family business\u2019s history, they began to introduce more modern dishes and ideas.<\/span><\/p>\n<\/div>\n

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The 2002 opening of the restaurant\u00a0El Portal de Echaurren\u00a0marked the beginning of a new stage. The gastronomic revolution brought on by the creative musings of chef Francis Paniego was recognized in 2004 with a Michelin Star,\u00a0the first in La Rioja’s history, and a second Michelin Star was garnered in 2013.<\/span><\/p>\n<\/div>\n

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In 2011,\u00a0Francis Paniego\u00a0was awarded the National Gastronomy Award for Best Head Chef, and in 2018\u00a0Chefe Paniego, sommelier and head waiter at Echaurren, received the\u00a0National Gastronomy Award for Best Head Waiter. By achieving three National Awards, Echaurren has reached a milestone that very few culinary endeavors have achieved in our country. <\/span><\/p>\n<\/div>\n

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\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n<\/div>\n

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Echaurren<\/b><\/b><\/p>\n<\/div>\n

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Padre Jos\u00e9 Garc\u00eda 19, Ezcaray.<\/p>\n<\/div>\n

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Tel.: +34 941 354 047<\/b><\/span><\/p>\n<\/div>\n

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echaurren.com<\/span><\/a><\/p>\n<\/div>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

It is not an easy task to get a family business to last generation after generation, and it is even more difficult for a family’s passion to remain alive over 125 years of history. That\u2019s exactly what they have achieved at Echaurren, a hotel and member […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":23993,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_acf_changed":false,"footnotes":""},"categories":[404],"tags":[764,766],"class_list":["post-23995","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-gourmet-en","tag-2024-en","tag-ezcaray-en"],"acf":[],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/basqueluxury.com\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/23995","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/basqueluxury.com\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/basqueluxury.com\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/basqueluxury.com\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/basqueluxury.com\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=23995"}],"version-history":[{"count":3,"href":"https:\/\/basqueluxury.com\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/23995\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":23998,"href":"https:\/\/basqueluxury.com\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/23995\/revisions\/23998"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/basqueluxury.com\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/23993"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/basqueluxury.com\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=23995"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/basqueluxury.com\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=23995"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/basqueluxury.com\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=23995"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}