This is La Raquetista in Havana, the most traveled dining room of the Aparicio brothers

They have done it again.

.

That the songs of expert sirens in the economy predict times of recession?

They hear them, yes, but they don't change their plans.

when, with the world and Spain in the midst of a global crisis, they decided to set up their first store in Madrid:

.

Today, October 4, they open

-in the Salamanca district-, their

(two Cachivache, in Serrano and in Montecarmelo;

and

, the most gastronomic of the group in Menorca, 4 ).

Reckless and/or brave?

"We see the company as something long-term.

. You see it as a whole and permanently. That's good because it gives security".

That's how calm and confident chef Javier Aparicio explains the

of

And he continues: "For example, we decided to open Cachivache Montecarmelo (opened in 2021)

. 'Now what?', we asked ourselves. Well, 'now we are going to open this one,' we replied."

After the second Cachivache, it is the turn of La Raquetista in Havana.

(Doctor Castelo, 19)- that we visited

Javier (left) and Paco in their new restaurant in the Salamanca district.

It shares with the other

, with first-class products, a pleasant and well-run room that steals smiles, wines for all tastes and pockets... and always thinking of the diner.

, Javier says by way of a

in all his premises, also in the last one of the

.

We go through the door and

.

It is an open space, with several areas:

(plants, wicker, walls in light colors and lots of light), invites you to travel from the interior design, which they have designed themselves, to the food.

Despite the name of the place, the menu doesn't stay in Cuba

"All our letters are. In the end, we play many sticks, but logically here it will have

We have a lot of relationship with Ibero-America, many ties and we want to defend those ties because we are very similar. That's cool and you have to cook it ", explains Javi, more similar to

by John Ford than to

.

They have opted for an open space with different areas.

A globetrotting kitchen that travels like their ancestors did with Basque pelota and a suitcase.

"It's a beautiful family story that

..., and continues with his children who traveled a lot with the knit basket...

. In the 1950s, in Spain

", say these two men from Madrid, whose family background goes from the Basque Country to Andalusia and Valencia.

Over the years they have learned and documented more of the history - "which has passed by" - of these "pioneers, modern women who had to fight against the prejudices of the time. In the mid-20th century,

. Havana was precisely one of the places where they were most relevant. They were like stars. There are photos of them in Miami, Tijuana, in Cuba... In many sites".

Now some of those images that Javi and Paco talk about

whose name pays homage to the racket-playing grandmother on one of her journeys.

"It's an excuse to play and have a good time. A fun place,

", says Javier, chef trained and experienced in a thousand kitchens: Escuela de Hostelería de la Casa of Field of Madrid, 1998;

postgraduate course at the Hotel Escuela de San Pol de Mar, 1999;

yacht chef;

's student at Espai Sucre

, 2001 and 2002;

he was in Sergi Arola's La Broche, 2003 and 2004;

practices with Miguel Sánchez Romera;

La Raquetista in Havana has a bar, an area with high tables and another with low tables.

We return to the present and the new dining room.

"The proposal is 50% La Raquetista de Doctor Castelo and 50% new dishes."

, but we believe that they fit very well with the area", explains Javier.

Area that is none other than the Salamanca district.

"We have always wanted to come here because it has a lot of potential. The opportunity arose and we have done it," explains a resolute Paco, who shows the

The entire restaurant operates the menu, the off menu and a wine proposal with 68 references from 38 DO "The idea is that it be a meeting place where things happen and where you can

says Javi, while Paco expands: "From eight in the morning, with

, until 11 or 11:30 at night , that we close the kitchen".

The new dining room is decorated in light colors and with plant elements.

"I love the breakfast format. I feel like -argues Javi- to give tortillas a cane".

And the arepas and the Cuban sandwich and the

and the Creole breakfast...

Add and follow the proposal: different salads (roasted sweet potato, guinea fowl, orange and quinoa with coconut chips, for example), mains (from snapper tiradito to beef tail with massaman curry), high-altitude tapas (cartagen cassava dumplings and meat, tostones de ropa vieja and red mojo sauce or icons from other places such as

)... And that national bacon so fashionable these years owes a lot to the Aparicios, so much so that their torreznos They have created

Javi, always determined to recover traditional recipes lost in memory,

.

It is not for less: cooked at low temperature, it has the perfect balance between fat and meat so that it is sweet and the skin, which is made apart, like a crust.

"We really like traditional cuisine and give

the torreznos... It is curious that

. But , hey, you don't choose, ha, ha. We are very proud", says this pioneer of

and chef who has always put technique at the service of the product and its flavour.

One of Javier's new creations: snapper tiradito with garlic and chilli sauce.

Javi and Paco are not twins, although they have seemed so since 2013, after uniting their professional paths and when Paco's "if we set up something" took their toll on Javi.

. He also knew it," recalls an always smiling Paco, who changed his job as

in a multinational automobile company for hospitality and sommelier.

"What happens is that I've never been in a hurry, things have a time", adds the cook.

The time came and they started that fun tavern, "with a pleasant atmosphere, for all audiences, at an affordable price and with

, and both do the same when they talk about their employees.

"

. If they are comfortable and happy, they pass it on to the customers," says the sommelier.

"In the end, this is a family formula. We want people to grow with us, there are people who have been with us from the beginning," says Javier, whose vocation was born before he remembers.

Tostones of old clothes and red mojo, another of the dishes of La Raquetista in Havana.

"When I was little, I

because they recorded it for me on VHS. That was 30 years ago, it was the first year of his program... I

. And he even made special sandwiches for Paco [nine years older than him] and his friends... I wanted to be a cook, but my father didn't," the chef recalls.

So with the rebelliousness of the years, "I was 17 or 18, I left COU, I left home and went to London to look for work. I stayed for a few months... Until my father called me to tell me that I had a place in the Hospitality School.

Today, his father, "like everyone else when they see that things are going well for their children", is delighted and

La Raquetista in Havana.

And it is that their offspring like to "roll the blanket to the head".

The racketeer in Havana

.

Juan Bravo, 41. Average price: 35-40 euros.

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