![The famous dining room at El Quijote in New York](https://images.suitcasemag.com/wp-content/uploads/2023/10/10200315/far-flung-feasting-six-new-restaurant-openings-worth-travelling-for_652f5f2135315.jpeg)
restaurant
El Quijote
New York, US
Sometimes, what crowns a restaurant a classic isn’t its menu,
but its story. Case in point? The legendary El Quijote hangout at
the bottom of the soon-to-reopen Hotel Chelsea. This scarlet-robed
dining room started serving sangria in the 1930s, becoming a
regular rendezvous point for Bob Dylan, Patti Smith and Andy
Warhol. It reopened last month, unchanged since the glory years –
all burgundy leather booths, etched glass, wrought iron edgings and
heavy chandeliers. All that’s missing? A cigarette haze swimming
around Warhol’s bleached-blonde thatch. The menu looks towards
Galicia and the Basque Country (think rabbit paella and oil-cured
anchovies), as does a voluptuous wine list, but we’re ordering a
sangria pitcher to toast the venue’s resurgence.