There are too many adequately defended clues not to recognize that this is Lhardy and, at the same time, to be aware that the unmistakable Coruñesas seal is behind one of the great openings of the gastronomic autumn in Madrid. Only the García Azpiroz family, behind hits like Filandón and Desde 1911 and unbeatable classics like O'Pazo and El Pescador, can dare to take a brand created in 1839 by a certain Emilio Lhardy to open a new headquarters in another neighborhood of Madrid and, in reality, under another business model.
Welcome to the new Lhardy Café, the new project of Grupo Pescaderías Coruñesas located on the ground floor of the Wellington Hotel, with entrance at number 8 Velázquez Street. It is the first time in its almost two centuries of history that the Madrid emblem opens another headquarters and moves to a different location than its original home at number 8 Carrera de San Jerónimo. In the heart of the Salamanca neighborhood and a stone's throw from El Retiro, the García Azpiroz hospitality group (with Maragata roots on the father's side, Evaristo García, and Anguleras, on the mother's side, María Juliana Azpiroz) had the opportunity to stay on the ground floor of the Wellington, where it operated as the Llave de Oro cafeteria until last year, to open a new Lhardy.
An extensive schedule and a very wide offer mark this inauguration. The potential client can have a breakfast of toast with braised turkey, a fruit juice or an almond financier, and have an aperitif - perhaps a gilda. eat or dine with a more extensive menu - which does not include their famous stew, but there are nods to this dish -, snack on salty or sweet food at any time, have a snack, opt for a cocktail or buy some pastries or, perhaps, their legendary soufflé in individual size. A continuous schedule from 9 in the morning until 11:30 p.m. - with the exception of Sunday, which closes at 4:30 p.m. - guarantees service at any time under a project that is not easy to manage and that the García Azpiroz team has the advantage of.
The ground floor
Thus, Lhardy Café has three areas and many ways to eat. It is accessed from Velázquez Street, where its first dining room is located: the terrace, with several round tables located on a platform. A mini lobby whose tiled floor reads Lhardy and whose wall simulates the façade of the original Carrera de San Jerónimo location, including a tribute to the mirror in which, according to Azorín, "we vanish into eternity."
From there you reach its first floor, at street level, which, pinch yourself, is a clear brother of the shop-café on the ground floor of the mother house: a low counter that can be a work space, a showcase of products and a bar where customers sit on low stools running around its entire perimeter. In one part, savory cuisine, including a replica of the famous croquetero; in another, cocktails; and in one more, the sweet offer, with the Lhardy soufflé delivered in individual portions - with a take-away box - and with pastries signed by Ricardo Vélez, pastry chef, owner of Moulin Chocolat, which Coruñesas signed to relaunch Lhardy's pastries after its purchase.
By the way, there is an ad hoc and really extensive breakfast menu at Lhardy Café - it operates from 9 a.m. to 11:30 a.m. and extends until 12 on Sundays -: various breads from One Hundred and Thirty Degrees, to which complements can be added; variety of fruit juices and smoothies; fruit, açai or yogurt bowls with granola; pastries and various recipes such as eggs, even rescuing some Mornay eggs. For the bravest, there is a Grand Lhardy Breakfast to treat yourself to for 28 euros per person.
Meanwhile, on the shelves that crown the bar on the ground floor, one more bombshell awaits: part of the Cuvées Lhardy collection, that is, references bottled by national and international wineries expressly for this Madrid house, with which the current team has recovered an ancient tradition of the original business, at the cost of more than a year of negotiation with large winemakers.
Visible here and listed on the menu, there are bottles labeled Lhardy de Niepoort, Gosset, Marqués de Murrieta, Ponce or Albert Bichot, among many other great wineries, in addition to the first wines of the Coruñesas group, from Lhardy Godello 2024, made with the renowned winemaker Raúl Pérez, to the first made at Bodegas Margón.
Sitting in the restaurant
A half-spiral staircase leads to the top, where the space - not particularly large - has been used to the maximum with several nooks and heights to house the main dining room. It is the Lhardy Café restaurant and where this concept has just been rounded off. "We seek to create a Lhardy according to what it was before, which was modernity, with the essence of Lhardy, as a meeting place, with offers at all hours and with a more current point of a New York-style bistro and, at the same time, part of an English cafeteria, always supported by the high cooking standards that our team has," defines Diego García Azpiroz, CEO of Grupo Pescaderías Coruñesas.
In 2020, Coruñesas hired Abel Valverde, who was head of the restaurant at the two-star Santceloni for 20 years, to direct its hospitality models, with a clear role in Desde 1911. In these first days, he is at the forefront of the start of the new Lhardy Café project, where around fifty professionals work in the kitchen, dining room and management.
"This has meant taking Lhardy's DNA, without wanting to make a Lhardy, to make it a French or English cafeteria, a boulangerie, a pastry shop or a showcooking bar with our product, in a place that transforms from morning to noon or night, with a spectacular breakfast that changes its look at 11.30 when we set up our fish and seafood showcase, which coexists with historical or classic dishes from Coruñesas," details Valverde.
On several consecutive tables for two or four clients and some slightly larger ones, there is an extensive menu where the essence of Lhardy and Coruñesas is seen and which is served throughout the day, except for the main dishes chapter, reserved only for lunch and dinner. Classics like consommé "with or without sparkle"; a salad cart from where they are made live and that Valverde sees as the recovery of "the prequel to the buffet"; dishes to share such as the house tripe served this time with a fried egg, a tub of foie, some mussels with bloody Mary, some Motril shrimp seasoned with garlic or a spectacular wagyu jerky from Ponferrada. Or, among the main dishes, Galician stingray chops, a lobster Wellington for two, a live steak tartare or a Celtic rooster shank.
It is not served cooked, but it does appear in croquette form or via reinterpreted dishes such as the bomb and delicious ravioli. Coruñesas stands out with its smoked salmon, its salpicón - a little more refined compared to the group's original - or the Evaristo sole grilled with vinegar.
In addition, there is a section -Between hours- in which the group measures itself by offering sandwiches such as the one called Lhardy, with Japanese mayonnaise and egg. Among the desserts, the smaller soufflé or a coffee flan, among other recipes. It is difficult to calculate an average ticket for lunch or dinner in Lhardy, since there are many ways to order; Let's think between 45 and 80 euros, adding wine or cocktails whoever wishes.
In a space that could be in New York, Paris or London, multiple objects rescued from Lhardy occupy spaces, are displayed in display cases or used as tableware. Did this place really just open the day before (the date we visited)? Why do the space and equipment seem typical of a business that has been in operation for years, decades?
'The Coruñesas era'
Since 2021, Lhardy has been owned by Grupo Pescaderías Coruñesas and continues to exist thanks to the García Azpiroz family, who have also given this name to their catering. In the middle of the pandemic, this hotel family, whose core business is the distribution of fish and seafood through Pescaderías Coruñesas (name of the group and the store on Juan Montalvo Street), bought Lhardy. In reality, it saved the Madrid emblem from its closure and probable disappearance, since the progressive deterioration of the business in previous years found its final straw in the Covid stoppage, which led to its pre-bankruptcy.
Then the García Azpiroz family - Diego, Marta and Paloma, children of Evaristo - arrived, bought the business and, along the way, the Carrera de San Jerónimo building - subject to maximum protection as a historical property - and, with the discretion that characterizes them in everything they do, they relaunched one of the oldest and most famous restaurants in Madrid. Thus, they took a look at the menu, reviewed the stew - Lhardy's iconic recipe - in a gastronomic and quality key, reset the consommé, added hits from Coruñesas - the smoked salmon, the salpicón and even a reissue of the Evaristo sole - and recovered classic recipes from the menu from many decades ago.
With this project in the process of relaunching - both in its store on the ground floor, where one can sit first thing in the morning, and in its restaurant on the first floor -, Coruñesas fulfilled the plan outlined (Lhardy's arose in the pandemic, it was not planned) and opened Since 1911, in the fall of 2021, in an industrial building it owns next to its store to create a haute cuisine restaurant in accordance with its vision: "Unite family tradition with a very refined" and no closed tasting menu, but several starters to choose how many the diner wants, a fish of the day as a main course and a spectacular dessert cart led by the very young pastry chef Mónica Rebollo. This is how the Michelin star arrived for what for many gourmets is one of the best haute cuisine restaurants in Madrid, it is also one of the most difficult to reserve, at a time that is not easy for Madrid and Spanish fine dining.
The plans of Coruñesas
Lhardy Café does not end the growth of the Coruñesas saga, which has several projects in the pipeline. With a large real estate heritage, the family is preparing the opening of Madrid Teatro (a hotel complex with theater and gastronomic offering located in three of its buildings in the Seville-Canalejas area) and the transformation of the historic Pescaderías Coruñesas store on Recoletos Street at Evaristo 33, a concept in which the García Azpirozs will join forces with the owners of Los 33, Sara Aznar and Nacho Ventosa (these, for their part, open the September 22 in Madrid La Once Mil, the Mexican taqueria with a Michelin star).
Appealing to their Leonese roots, they have created Granja de los Monjes, a farm near Ponferrada with an orchard and vineyards with which they hope to achieve "the best white wine in Spain" with Raúl Pérez, with which they have already launched the Trapera rosé, made at Bodega Margón (Pajares de los Oteros), also purchased by the García Azpiroz family.
"Madrid cannot be conceived without Lhardy," wrote José Martínez Ruiz Azorín. Not even without Coruñesas, it should be added.
