Madrid, August 1964. The historic Palace of the Duke of Uceda is demolished to build, in that privileged location that overhangs the Plaza de Colón, a modern office block named Edificio Centro Colón. With an entrance from Marqués de la Ensenada street, next to what was the legendary Bocaccio nightclub, a liberal redoubt of the 70s, the Centro Colón houses on its 14th and 15th floors one of the most exclusive spaces in the capital: the Club Financial Genoa.
Created in 1972 by the businessmen Juan Garrigues Walker and Antonio Muñoz Cabrero, thinking that the elites would have a central and discreet meeting place to talk about business or close political agreements, these 2,800 square meters were reserved until 2000 for its 500 male partners. Now that women make up 30% of the members and under the presidency of Arturo de las Heras, Club Financiero Génova has taken another step in its modernization, opening its privileged dining room with views and its rooftop terrace to the public. But it does so with certain conditions: mandatory reservation through its website; non-member hours limited to weekday evenings and weekend lunches and dinners; Elegant dress code -how could it be otherwise-, with a jacket for gentlemen and an absolute prohibition on wearing shorts or sportswear…
Is all this worth it? I assure you yes. Also, during the weekend the dress code becomes somewhat more lax and admits what well-traveled people call smart casual, which in silver would mean “arranged but informal”. The merit of this initiative must be attributed, in addition to an open-minded board of directors, to the stubbornness of José Manuel García, the leader of Azotea Grupo and a member of the club since 2017.
As the businessman told Madrid Total, from the moment he became a member, he knew that the Genoa Financial Club housed “the best space in Madrid”, with an incomparable 360º panoramic view of the capital’s skyline, and he must have managed it sometime. day. As it has been.
García has had the good sense of associating for this project with Grupo La Ancha, a family hotel emporium that has been providing rich food to the people of Madrid for four generations and that today is run by Nino and Santi Redruello, having also expanded to Barcelona, by the hand of Jaime Santianes. Think of establishments like La Ancha, Las Tortillas de Gabino, Fismuler, Armando, Molino de Pez, The Omar, Hijos de Tomás…
Although the Financial Club still maintains some essential recipes from the saga, such as the Velázquez omelette with tripe sauce, the dining room management agreement obliges them to propose a good number of new dishes every week, so that the customers -who they can have lunch here several days in a row and they have a special menu for them at €45- they will never get bored of the menu. And Nino Redruello has had the good judgment to entrust the group’s executive chef, Manuel Villalba (formerly DiverXo), with setting up the project. Which is a guarantee of cooking with foundation and fair creativity, without drifting.
Just as the interior design of the room has changed for the better -but without fanfare- thanks to the work of Arquitectura Invisible and Alejandra Pombo Estudio; In the same way that the wine list has been enriched with hundreds of attractive references well chosen by the sommelier Alba Mozo, the culinary proposal is worthy of a 21st century private club, with its exclusive work area for members, its two dining rooms, its two bars, its terraces and its area for private and corporate events.
For Nino Redruello, “this is an exciting project, since it has made us consider what a club is like in Spain and what are the differences with respect to a restaurant on the street” to generate an offer that satisfies “both members and non-members”. partners and never bore staff.” Which translates into initial proposals such as the San Isidro salad, the wild sea bream in tartare, the squid with a hook “a la Sochantre”, the rice baked from pitu de Caleya, the glazed chickpeas with veal and langoustines, the battered hake in green sauce with cockles or the veal meatballs from Ávila, not to mention homages to Madrid’s gastronomic history, such as that consummate broth that Valle-Inclán and his friends drank at the Café de la Montaña, that interpretation of the steak at the Café de Fornos or the recreation of full breaded sole from Casa Aroca.
We, on a summer visit at noon, decided not to look at the menu and put ourselves in the hands of Manuel Villalba, to discover some of those changing proposals that make this restaurant one of the most attractive of those that have opened (or reopened) in Madrid in the last months.
We start with a refreshing Isla Cristina langoustine tartare with caviar. We continue with an addictive lemon fish marinated with bergamot kabayaki and then with a highly original seasonal fruit ceviche with amontillado zucchini. We open the most forceful part with a fried egg with shallot and battered shrimp, which is followed by the essential Velazquez omelette. The white beans with beurre blanc sauce and trout roe are a fun cosmopolitan concession, which is offset by an irreproachable stew in which each vegetable has been prepared separately, carefully monitoring the right cooking point. The lentils of the pardina variety with salsa americana, apple and red shrimp are up there with the best I’ve come across (think Lera, Sacha or Viridiana). Attention to tuna with tomato, a seasonal dish where the difficult thing is to keep the tuna succulent. Test passed!
A Sirloin Wellington before dessert? Of course! This 18th-century Gallic classic, which our neighbors call filet de boeuf en croûte and which the British renamed to make it their own during the Napoleonic wars, is a test for any chef -pay attention to the one that César Martín sometimes makes in Lakasa- and he does not fail here. Neither do a rum baba with excellent brioche, that fantastic Fismuler-style cheesecake or a pistachio ice cream with olive oil, praline and salt, which was my favorite after-meal.
For the next visit, we leave Luca Anastasio’s cocktail bar pending, who is a renowned mixologist and has invented for the club some concoctions without juices or purees, which evoke the combinations of the early 20th century prior to Prohibition. And it is that the Financial, in this new version 2.0, offers a culinary and hedonistic experience at a fairly contained price, so satisfying and endless that it makes you want to become a member to go more frequently. Being a joy in Madrid is becoming non-stop!
