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New Yorkers nostalgic for the days when dinner didn’t require a small personal loan are in luck: Boqueria is turning 20 years old and the Spanish tapas restaurant is briefly reviving its opening-year prices to celebrate.
From September 21 through September 27, every Boqueria location in New York City will serve a selection of dishes and drinks at their original 2006 prices. That means pan con tomate for $5, tortilla española and patatas bravas for $6 each and glasses of sangría for just $7.
Boqueria first opened at 53 West 19th Street in the summer of 2006, taking its name and inspiration from Barcelona’s famous Mercat de la Boqueria. The narrow Flatiron restaurant—with its communal tables and bustling bar—helped make casual, market-inspired Spanish dining a familiar part of New York’s restaurant scene.
Since then, the brand has expanded beyond its original neighborhood, adding outposts in Soho, on the Upper East Side and near Times Square, along with restaurants in several other U.S. cities. But the anniversary menu returns to the dishes that helped establish the restaurant two decades ago. Along with the discounted favorites, diners can expect additional throwbacks inspired by Boqueria’s earliest menus.
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The birthday week ends on an especially sweet note. On Saturday, September 26, and Sunday, September 27, Boqueria is teaming up with Dominique Ansel Bakery for a big pastry giveaway in Soho: A vintage Citroën food truck will park on Spring Street and hand out 100 complimentary pastries per day. (The collaboration is fittingly local: Boqueria’s Soho restaurant and Dominique Ansel’s bakery are neighbors on the same block.)
The pastries will be available on a first-come, first-served basis, so anyone hoping to snag one should probably arrive early. New Yorkers have demonstrated repeatedly that they will queue for a Dominique Ansel creation, especially when the price is exactly zero dollars.
Twenty years is a serious achievement in a restaurant city as unforgiving as New York. Boqueria is marking the occasion with two things that never go out of style: patatas bravas and prices that feel like they came from another century.