I am unspeakably excited about this event. Let's say that I have been working on it since the restaurant first reopened in the Spring of 2022. El Quijote is a New York City restaurant with a history proportional to its namesake. It opened in the Chelsea Hotel in 1930 and was a stalwart of the city; one of a small cadre of serious Spanish restaurants that served an iconic and unchanging cuisine at modest prices. I remember trembling with excitement as a 6 year old when we made weekend forays there and I got to see the amazing mannequins of Don Quijote and Sancho Panza, and eat a reddish rice scooped up in mussel shells.
Craig Claiborne of the Times recommended it tepidly in 1967: "There is a certain tawdry appeal about this well-known Spanish restaurant in the Chelsea Hotel."
The restaurant closed in its 88th year in 2018 and I remember people older than I am crying. The hotel was purchased and submitted to a thorough renovation before reopening with an unfamiliar aura of luxury. The word was that the restaurant had been restored in a truly loving fashion, with aspects of its decor, and perhaps the mannequins themselves, recreated from photographs.
And perhaps best of all, there was seriousness behind the food and drink at the restaurant. The best sign of this is that management sought out and put in charge of the beverages Claire Papparazzo, a force in food and wine in lower Manhattan, a titan of taste, and a a great teacher. She has always been a leader, not a follower, seeing wines of luminous quality where others merely wandered about.
Claire invited me to the restaurant on its reopening in February 2022. I could not make it out until April 2022, nearly 3 years ago to the day. The restaurant has a small private room, the Cervantes Room. When I saw it, I thought: we must do an event here. And so we will: Palomino study. The focus will be the intersection of our work in Los Angeles with the wine most proper to this Quixotic restaurant: sherry.
We are going to taste and drink 11 wines! And begin with a Martini.
The list will include four Los Angeles River wines that we have made from a 1912 Palomino vineyard, east of LA; 3 of them straighforward wines, and one that is from a flor-affected solera. We will also drink 4 sherries chosen by Claire, and a Chardonnay from Jerez. I am bringing one red wine, made by my friends at Cims de Porrera.
The restaurant is providing light snacks in a very Spanish tradition. There will be Jamón, but there will not be paella. You should have dinner before, or, even better, after!
The price includes tax and gratuity. We will begin promptly at 7 and conclude at 8:55.
