RSS
Home
Paella and ambiente at La Nacional
Print
Email
RSS
Subscribe
A little-known social club on West 14th Street opens its membership and invites everyone in to try their tapas and sangria.
If you’ve spent any time in the bars and restaurants of Spain, you know that real Spanish ambience—ambiente—is rare in New York City. There are plenty of restaurants with bullfighting posters on their walls or Joan Miró design themes, but the interior décor does not generally translate into Spanish atmosphere. For true ambiente you need a cheerful, friendly, intensely sociable crowd—in short, you need lots of Spaniards.
After years of trying out Manhattan’s Spanish restaurants—the upscale, the midscale and the downscale varieties—I’d almost given up hope of finding a place that really felt like Spain. That was before I discovered La Nacional, the offspring of a little-known social club, The Spanish Benevolent Society, founded 140 years ago by Spanish expatriates living in New York City.
Situated in an old brownstone on West 14th Street, between 7th and 8th Avenues, La Nacional is easy to miss, unless you’re looking for it. There’s no advertising, other than a small wooden plaque, to draw you into the charming, ground floor restaurant that’s open to the public. Beyond the restaurant is an unassuming bar and party room for club members and upstairs there’s a salon where you can take flamenco and tango classes.
Last week, after hearing about La Nacional through the grapevine for years, I made plans to meet my Hispanophile friend Cara de Silva for dinner at the restaurant. It’s owned by chef Lolo Manso, who also runs the well-reviewed Socarrat Paella Bar nearby on West 19th Street. Both of Lolo’s restaurants are known for their paella and tapas. But La Nacional has the added attraction of its long history as a home away from home for New York’s Spanish community.
While I was waiting for Cara at the bar, a tall, good-looking guy named Maximino walked over to introduce himself. This wasn’t a New York pick-up. It was just Maximino being Spanish, sociable and very gracious. In Spain, after all, one doesn’t leave anyone alone at a bar. That would be just so…antisocial.
Within ten minutes I knew Maximino’s story—how he’d grown up on 14th Street as part of the Spanish expat community that flourished in New York from the 1920s to the 80s, and how he’d gone to Spain every summer as a teenager to perfect his accent and grammar. I’d also been invited to return the following week. Before he left, Maximino told me that La Nacional was having a membership drive during the month of February and suggested I should stop by for the membership party.
His invitation was echoed by another person I was introduced to at the bar. Robert Sanfiz, a young lawyer whose office is down the block, is the offspring of a father from Spain. The Benevolent Association had fallen on hard times in recent years and Robert led a group of volunteers to restore the building and revitalize the Society.
He told me about their plans to turn La Nacional into a flourishing center for Iberian arts, gastronomy and culture. The group is planning book and poetry readings, film festivals, cycling and soccer programs and free Spanish language classes, and they’re even talking about a culinary institute.
“We’re opening our doors to everyone who’s interested in Spanish culture,” Robert told me, “The Spanish community is small, but it’s dynamic. We’re hoping the Society will recapture its past distinction as a gathering place for all of us, and those who care about Spanish culture. That’s why we’re having a ‘Meet the Members’ party and membership drive next Saturday. I hope you’ll come and bring your friends.”
Later, as I sipped a glass of Rioja in the restaurant and passed plates of chorizo, fried artichokes and wonderful little white sardines to my friend Cara, I imagined what a glamorous new La Nacional of the twenty-teens might look like, transformed into a thriving cultural center that holds different social events every night of the week.
As I indulged in my fantasy, a smiling waitress brought us a sizzling pan of fideuá, a Valencian paella made with noodles instead of rice, and set it between us. Little pink shrimp and tiny baby clams glistened next to bright green peas. “Don’t forget to eat the crispy stuff on the bottom, it’s the best part!” she advised us. And she was right.
Cara was talking about Spanish poet and playwright Federico García Lorca, one of our shared passions, who—the story goes—spent many evenings at La Nacional when he was in New York City in 1929. As hardcore Lorca fans and hopeless romantics, we agreed it was thrilling to think the great writer might have been partying, maybe even performing his poetry, in this very place.
Finally, after consuming only half of each of our desserts—torta de Santiago (a rich almond cake) and crema catalana (the delicious Catalan version of crème brûlée) we were forced to admit we could eat no more. Setting our forks down at last, we called for the check.
“Goodbye!” we called to the staff, as we headed for the door. “Thank you so much!”
As my friend and I went in our separate directions in the cold January night, my thoughts turned back to La Nacional and the guys I’d met at the bar. Their vision for the future of the old brownstone was so compelling that I resolved I had to be there on Saturday for the membership drive.
Since that night, I’ve turned Robert’s words over in my mind and pondered the plans of the enthusiastic membership. Considering the bleak economy, will these nice, idealistic folks ever succeed even in raising enough funds to restore the building, let along to set up an art gallery, a performance space and a gastronomic institute? Given their optimism and energy, I think they have a good chance. Whatever happens to La Nacional, I am sure it will always be a place for New Yorkers and Spaniards to drink, eat, talk, laugh, mingle and be part of that alegría, or gay conviviality, that is so seductively Spanish.
Robert urged me to come to the membership party this Saturday night and bring my friends. Now I’m inviting you:
La Nacional - 239 W 14th Street (btw. 7th & 8th Avenues) (212) 243-9308
Meet the Members Party: Saturday, February 7th,, 6:00 to 10:00 P.M. - Check out the scene at La Nacional and consume endless tapas and sangria. The evening is $20 for the general public and free for those who apply for membership.
Should you become a member, you’ll enjoy discounts at the restaurant and a standing invitation to the weekly “Members Days,” when free tapas are served with reduced-price drinks. You’ll also get discounts on dance, wine and gastronomy classes offered at La Nacional and Círculo Español, in Astoria, Queens, who together form Centro Español de Nueva York. Best of all you’ll be welcomed into the big, friendly Centro Español family and invited to vote and participate in the organization’s plans for the future. Membership costs: $100 per year.
Related articles:
Flamenco Fridays? Best tapas bars on the Upper West Side
Flamenco dancer Omayra Amaya sizzles in the Village
If you like what you read, subscribe to my feed.
Related Articles:
Comments
