Welcome to Echaurren’s 125th anniversary
2023 is the 125th anniversary of the founding of this company by Pedrito Echaurren and aunt Andrea.
And so it’s going to be a year to remember.
Because we believe that this is the best possible time to honour those who came before us, to celebrate having got this far and give thanks to all those who have been part of this exciting journey.
We are still here, in the same place, with the same motivation, offering bed and board to all who care to visit us. Six generations of a family dedicated to gastronomy and hospitality. To trying to make all those who come in through the door happy.
Together we will make 2023 a very special year.
We look forward to welcoming you to our home to celebrate Echaurren’s 125th anniversary. A year to remember.
The Echaurren family
One household, five generations
At the end of the 19th century, Ezcaray was growing at the same pace as businesses such as mining and timber. In the center of this prosperous town, our uncle Pedrito and our aunt Andrea decided to open a restaurant on the second floor of the building where they managed a stagecoach office and an inn. That place, the one in the photograph you see here, is the same building where we still receive you today.
With the Fonda Echaurren began a gastronomic and hotel tradition that has lasted for 125 years and five generations.
Cristina, niece of our founders, took over the Echaurren kitchen in 1925. The business had already acquired great prestige, although the post-war years were complicated. Cristina sold the business to her sister Julia, our grandmother. Together with grandfather Luis, they ran the restaurant until 1957.
The summers, still without tourists, and the long winters of Ezcaray, were relieved by the sweets that our grandmother Julia made in the arcades of the building. In that confectionery the youngest daughter of the couple, Marisa, our mother, played at being a cook.
With everything she learned from her great aunt Andrea, her aunt Cristina and her mother Julia, Marisa Sánchez took the reins of Echaurren when she was only 18 years old. Her husband Félix Paniego took charge of the winery and the business accounts.
Our mother’s good work in the kitchen was awarded in 1987 with the National Gastronomy Award for Best Head Chef. Her croquettes, her lamb trotters or her potatoes Rioja style, marked a whole era and made the name of Echaurren and Ezcaray be heard all over the country.
At the end of the 1980s Marisa and Félix plucked up the courage to completely refurbish the facilities, which were inaugurated in 1989. It was a very prosperous time for Echaurren that was terribly shaken by the death of our brother Luis Ángel. He had been the first to study hotel management and the rest of us had followed in his footsteps to one day take over the kitchen, the cellar and the business.
Marisa temporarily left the kitchen and the Paniego brothers stepped forward to take Echaurren forward.
Little by little, always with great respect for history and a deep passion for the family business, they began to introduce more modern dishes and ideas.
The opening in 2002 of the restaurant El Portal de Echaurren marked the beginning of a new stage in our house. The gastronomic revolution brought about by the creative proposal of chef Francis Paniego was recognized in 2004 with a MICHELIN Star, the first in the history of La Rioja, and in 2013, with a second MICHELIN Star.
In 2011, Francis Paniego was awarded the National Gastronomy Award for Best Chef and in 2018 Chefe Paniego, sommelier and head waiter at Echaurren, received the National Gastronomy Award for Best Head Waiter.
By achieving three National Awards, Echaurren reached a milestone that very few gastronomic sagas have achieved in our country.
Unfortunately, not everything has been joyful for this fifth generation. A few years ago we had to say goodbye to our sister Marta Paniego, whom there is not a single day that we do not remember when walking through the woods that surround us and recalling so many moments lived.
Francis, Chefe and Marisa Paniego are still in charge of Echaurren.
In 2009 we began a complete renovation of the building, which was carried out little by little, slowly, until it was finished in 2021.
During that period we said goodbye to our mother Marisa, who passed away in 2018 and who continues to be our main inspiration.
The three Paniego brothers work with the firm intention of honoring in every decision we make all the previous generations, all the people who with their efforts turned Echaurren into what it is, a place of hospitality, relaxation and gastronomic enjoyment.
We cannot be more proud of the past and the history of this house than when we see our sons and daughters serving the tables of Echaurren, swarming through our cellar, learning in our kitchen, and we feel that a future sixth generation is already beginning to beat in Echaurren.
Because despite the recent death of our father, Félix Paniego, we believe that the best tribute we can pay to him, to our mother, Marisa Sánchez, and to all those who preceded them -Julia, Luis, Cristina, Andrea and Pedro Echaurren- is to continue projecting our house into the future.
That is why in 2023 we celebrate our 125th anniversary.
125 years of history, family and cuisine.
A year to remember
