Ganbara — Where Chefs Come to Eat

There are restaurants you visit because someone recommends them. And then there are places that seem to have been quietly adopted by the people who actually know where to eat.

Ganbara belongs firmly in the second category.

Tucked into Calle San Jerónimo in the heart of San Sebastián’s Parte Vieja, Ganbara is one of those places where the distinction between bar, restaurant and institution has long since disappeared. The bar is usually crowded, the counter loaded with pintxos, and these days there is often a line outside the door. You wait because everyone else has already decided that it is worth waiting for.

The story goes back to 1941, when Manolo Martínez and Juliana Gil opened Bar Martínez on Calle 31 de Agosto. Their son José Ignacio spent 15 years working alongside them before setting out on his own with his partner Amaia Ortuzar. Amaia had previously worked at the legendary Asador Trapos, just across from the family bar.

In 1984, they opened Ganbara.

From the beginning, the idea was deceptively simple: exceptional ingredients, carefully handled, served without unnecessary fuss. José Ignacio developed the pintxo side of the business, while Amaia became the soul of the kitchen. She was largely self-taught, learning by doing, and together they began introducing things that were unusual in the San Sebastián of the time.

One of them was mushrooms.

Today, wild mushrooms are hardly surprising on a Basque menu. But Ganbara was among the pioneers of putting them centre stage. Their seasonal produce became part of the identity of the house, and dishes such as grilled wild mushrooms with foie gras and a raw egg yolk turned a few simple ingredients into something approaching culinary mythology.

Then there is the txangurro tartlet — spider crab nestled into crisp pastry — another Ganbara classic that has become part of the vocabulary of San Sebastián’s pintxo culture.

This is perhaps the secret of Ganbara. It has never needed to shout.

The ingredients do most of the talking.

And chefs noticed.

Ganbara became a favourite meeting place for many of the city’s culinary personalities, including the people who helped make San Sebastián one of Europe’s great gastronomic capitals. Juan Mari Arzak has been a regular. Anthony Bourdain discovered Ganbara on his first visit to San Sebastián and, in his own words, returned “every time” he came back to the city. In Parts Unknown, he called it his favourite place and made a particular pilgrimage to the wild mushrooms, foie gras and egg yolk.

There is something wonderfully revealing about that.

Bourdain could have eaten almost anywhere in San Sebastián. Instead, he kept coming back to Ganbara.

And he wasn’t alone. Chefs, restaurateurs and serious food lovers have long treated the place as something of a clubhouse — somewhere to eat, talk, discuss food and order another pintxo. Even Juan Mari Arzak has been photographed wandering behind the Ganbara bar and into the kitchen, rather than sitting ceremoniously at a table.

That says more about the place than any award ever could.

Today, the third generation of the family continues the story. More than forty years after Ganbara opened, the philosophy remains remarkably unchanged: seasonal ingredients, Basque tradition, generosity and a relentless respect for the raw product.

Walk past on a busy evening and you will probably see the queue before you see the sign.

Don’t be discouraged.

The people standing outside already know something.

Ganbara isn’t simply somewhere to have a pintxo in San Sebastián.

It is one of the places that helped define what a pintxo could be.

 

My take:

What makes a place like Ganbara so special? When the bar, the food, the drinks — everything — feels like your kind of thing. That’s when you know you’ve found your kind of place, and perhaps even your kind of lifestyle.

Stefan Gahlin