“L'Hispània is not for sale; we have joined with a passionate partner and we will make many more dishes”

Arenys de MarIt is noon, just past three o'clock, when Raimon Braun (Arenys de Mar, 1968) and Marta Aulestia (Barcelona, 1972) sit down at the kitchen table of L'Hispània for lunch. I join them, and between the two of them, they decide on the menu: to drink, Gigi by Jean Leon; for lunch, fritters, Russian salad, brain salad; Arenys prawns with salt; hook-caught squid; sea bass, and for dessert, little caramel custard and sponge cake cubes. Raimon and Marta are happier than ever: for a little over a year, they have had a passionate partner for L'Hispània, with whom they have joined forces to carry out new projects: before the end of the year, they will start serving hearty breakfasts; they will build an outdoor terrace; they will host evening gatherings and will create rooms above the restaurant to recover the essence of the restaurant, the inn. And all this has come to them at a time when they knew they had no successor because their two children had told them they did not want to dedicate themselves to it: “We saw that we had no one behind us, that we were alone.” So they emphasize it clearly: “L'Hispània is not for sale; we have joined forces with a passionate partner and we will make many more dishes.”

Since 2014, Raimon and Marta had been left alone at the helm of Hispània. Raimon's mother, Paquita, and Lolita, his sister, had gradually stopped going. "It was gradual; one day, they would tell us they were going with their grandchildren; another, that they were running an errand," he explains. They understood it; they were of a certain age and had spent their lives tied to the restaurant. "They never told us verbally that they would stop coming to work, but we understood it," they recount. Even today, customers ask them if they can see them, if it would ever be possible for them to be there. They are 92 and 87 years old, they lead a different life, far and near the restaurant, because they are aware of everything Raimon and Marta do there. "When we told them about joining forces with a person who loved Hispània as much as we did, Paquita told us to go ahead." Marta and Raimon being left alone at the restaurant had meant that between the two of them they performed the tasks that were previously done by six family members, because the partners of the two sisters also took care of restaurant tasks; Raimon's father, the food shopping; Lolita's partner, the finances. The two sisters, in the kitchen, with Raimon by their side, and in the dining room, with Marta.

Fork breakfasts and evening gatherings

Let's start talking about the new projects. The most immediate one, the fork breakfasts. Before the year ends, they already want to start doing them. In the early hours of the morning, you will be able to eat sardines, 'capipota' (head and trotters stew), and 'truites d'enagos', which is the expression the Reixach family used to talk about vegetable omelets. They will serve them in the first lounge of the restaurant, in the lobby, where the fireplace is, which is a large and cozy space. By 12:00 PM, they will have finished serving them, and the people who are there will be able to finish them calmly, without rushing, but they will begin to prepare for the lunch service.

Once they have the fork breakfasts up and running, they will tackle another of the projects, the evening gatherings, "because people our age prefer to go out in the evening, rather than finishing dinner late." And to do them, it would be ideal if they had the terrace finished. We go to see the space where they want to build it, and it really is a green and beautiful space. It will be located above the pine garden, from where you can see the N-II beltway and the sea. "With the terrace, we have to count on all the permits to build it; it will be slower than we would like, but we will do it," explain Raimon and Marta. They are calm, I would say even more excited than ever about all the projects they explain to each other. And they continue: the rooms on the floor above. Another topic for which they have started to request permits, but which they are passionate about, because it is about recovering the spirit of the Hispània. When Paquita Rexach opened the garage and the gas station, where she served the first dishes requested by those who stopped there (some sardines and a plate of escudella), she understood that a normal evolution of service was to have rooms there. "They were requested by the Germans, who arrived in droves in the summers, and spent many days there; they also brought us modernity in clothing and in the way of behaving," recalls her son, who says they were the first to start staying there. The hostel rooms were not part of the sisters' house, who also lived near the restaurant, but were located on another side of the house, and which today is a private space for Marta and Raimon. "One of the rooms we are going to renovate has a pool, and we know it will be very popular," Marta advances.

We continue with the conversation, and we talk about dishes and Raimon's training. He especially likes Jean Leon wines, because he worked with Jean Leon, the pseudonym of Ceferino Carrión. “He was a customer at Hispània, and he insisted that I go work at one of his three restaurants, L’Scala”. He went there, and he has great memories of that time. “One day at the restaurant we had Bruce Springsteen dining”. Ceferino Carrión wanted the Catalan cuisine of Hispània to be practiced in his restaurant, and that is why he wanted to have Raimon there. There are many other restaurants where Raimon passed through, where he learned recipes, such as lentils with duck wings, which is one of those that they will start preparing this autumn. “There is also another one that I had stuck since my mother stopped coming, which are the meatballs”, says Raimon. It is curious how there are obstacles that we set for ourselves, and we do not dare to jump over. The meatballs were that for Raimon, and this summer he has cleared it up. Thanks to Marta, one morning they got to it: “I had also learned to make them with Paquita, my mother-in-law, and I remembered the steps, so I told Raimon that we had to do it”. It is a laborious recipe, full of tricks to ensure they remain fluffy, and not dense. I ask him what they are: and they especially point out the bread that must be used, which must have a special crumb. They go to the kitchen, and take out a large, fluffy, ethereal bread.

And from the meatballs, we move on to many other recipes, which they have all written down and stored. “In boxes, written on wine labels, on napkins, on coasters, on papers; everything is written but in that way, and now we also want to get to it: we will clean it up, we will rewrite them”. It is one more project they are embarking on, and which they will do, because Raimon and Marta are pure energy. They share a passion for a house that is a great benchmark of Catalan cuisine, and which deserves all the respect in the world.