La Rinconada de Lorenzo is a living memory of traditional Aragonese cuisine. Nowadays, the second and third generation run a restaurant where the recipes of grandmother María Cruz are still being cooked.
La Rinconada de Lorenzo opened its doors for the first time in 1970, in Latassa Street in Zaragoza, with the aim of becoming a traditional Aragonese restaurant of reference in Zaragoza. In November 1972, the restaurant was inaugurated in its current location, in Plaza San Francisco, one of the most gastronomic areas of the Aragonese capital.
The famous jotero, Lorenzo Navascués, and his wife, María Cruz Badía, were the soul of a project that was soon joined by their sons, Javier and Óscar, and their wives, Elisa Júdez and Belén Arroyo. At present, the Navascués brothers, Belén and Javier’s daughter, Elisa Navascués, run what today is a guarantor of traditional Aragonese cuisine and a museum of the history of the jota and local gastronomy.
Nowadays, the chefs Enrique Pérez and Alberto Mur, with the collaboration of Diego Gadea, continue to materialize to the letter the recipes that Mari Cruz introduced in her day, traditional dishes of the Aragonese recipe book that are difficult to find in other establishments. “In our menu, although over the years new products such as fish have been introduced, we continue to offer grandmother’s recipes just as she used to make them, we have only updated the presentation”, explains Belén Arroyo.
Typically Aragonese recipes that are prepared “with the best local, seasonal and differentiated quality products: olive oil with Designation of Origin of Lower Aragon, Ternasco de Aragón with Protected Geographical Indication, vegetables from the orchard of Zaragoza, etc.”, emphasizes Belén. This excellence is also reflected in their winery: “with 90% of Aragonese wines and a very careful selection of wines from small wineries that are doing very interesting things”.
Recipe Fritada with rabbit and snails. La Rinconada de Lorenzo Restaurant. Photo: Agencia Almozara Cristina Martinez.
In order for Lorenzo and Mari Cruz’s culinary legacy not to be lost, Belén comments, “when we renew the menu, we like to recover some ancestral recipe and include it, so that the younger public can discover our traditional cuisine and, the truth is that many are surprised”.
With such a trajectory, La Rinconada de Lorenzo is one of the best ambassadors of the authentic Aragonese culinary tradition. Throughout more than five decades, many illustrious personalities of culture, sports and society in general have enjoyed at its tables and have spread the goodness of its cuisine, its team and its history.
Muel ceramics, ogival windows, still lifes, etc. exemplify the Aragonese flavor also in the architecture and decoration of La Rinconada de Lorenzo, a restaurant that, says Belén, “is like a museum that new customers like to visit, seeing the old photos, the dedications… they are surprised that we have been open for so many years and in the hands of the same family”, she acknowledges.
They also discover in La Rinconada, both national and international customers, products so much ours “as the borage, the salad of pickled rabbit, the skeins…”, continues Belén. And it can be seen that they like them, because “many customers come from abroad to whom an acquaintance has recommended the visit and there are even those who ask us for the recipes”.
Consistency, coherence and honesty are the keys for a business to survive for so long under the same family, but also, “the pampering of the product, the rest, the time… are things that we all have so internalized that just by smelling a stew we know if it is ready”, summarizes Belén.
