Ventorro, with a waiting list: "We are working harder than ever"

BarcelonaOn the first anniversary of the DANA storm, the protest against the Valencian government ended outside El Ventorro restaurant. The nearly four-hour lunch between Carlos Mazón and Maribel Vilaplana at this establishment has become the most striking evidence of the negligent handling of the situation by the head of the Valencian government on October 29th of last year. So much so that its owner, Alfredo Romero, decided remove the sign from the entrance to reduce the influx of citizens who stop in front of the establishment every day to photograph it.

But neither being in the eye of the storm nor the ironic reviews that appear on Google It's taken its toll. On the contrary. This centrally located restaurant, just ten minutes from the Palau de la Generalitat, at the intersection of Bonaire and Tertúlia streets, has become fashionable and is no longer just a haven for the city's political and economic elite. "We're busier than ever," say staff at the restaurant, which only serves lunch from Monday to Friday. ARA has confirmed this. This week it's impossible to reserve a table for lunch, and there are none available next week either.

"It's been very difficult to reserve a table in recent weeks," confirms a regular customer, who attributes it to the popularity the establishment has gained since the controversial lunch. "It's always done well because it's small and the customers are businesspeople and politicians, but now curious onlookers are joining in," he says. El Ventorro isn't Ricard Camarena, Poblet, La Salita, or Arrels—some of the best restaurants in Valencia—but now many people want to go and eat at the same place where Mazón and Vilaplana ate that fateful day. People from outside the Valencian Community are also coming, like Martí, a young man from the Vallès region who managed to get a table a month ago. Since he had a conference at the City of Arts and Sciences, he called to reserve a table. "I wanted to go out of morbid curiosity, to have a laugh, and I called six months ago, but they didn't give me a table. Ten days before, I called again and they did," he says. He explains that he didn't bring it up because the first time he called, he did, and the owner was evasive: "I saw that he didn't want to talk about it, and when I was there, I didn't say anything." Ventorro, then, has turned the page on the first few weeks after the DANA storm, when few people ventured there. "We tried to survive," was all its owner, Alfredo Romero, told ARA in February. He has declined to speak to any media outlet since it became known that Mazón was in his restaurant on the fateful afternoon of the flash flood. Now, it remains to be seen how his court appearance will affect him, after the magistrate presiding over the case made her decision this Wednesday. summon him as a witness, after refusing to voluntarily testify as the victims demanded.

He did so as a result of Vilaplana's testimony He told the judge that Romero was the only person going in and out of the room where they had lunch, and that he also gave him some papers which he took to an employee at the establishment and waited for the employee to sign before returning them. During these comings and goings, Nuria Ruiz Tobarra believes that Romero could have overheard a conversation between Mazón and Salomé Pradas when the former decided to answer the phone in the latter's room. So far, neither he nor any of the waiters have explained anything about what they saw or heard that day, demonstrating the discretion that has always characterized this restaurant specializing in home-style cooking.