Few and far between were those in Hendaye who had heard of Lehman Brothers. It was a small town with quite naturally its share of small town attitudes. Outside of the summer season it was the kind of place where a stranger who walked into the local pharmacy was looked at as like a suspected flasher, and if when he spoke he had a pronounced accent, besides that of the neighbouring Spanish, the assistant would have checked the proximity of the telephone to ensure it was near at hand, to alert the local Gendarmerie if need arose.
As a coastal resort with a fine beach Hendaye quite naturally swarmed with tourists during the summer season. Many from the north were Parigos — a disdainful term used provincials to describe Parisians and those in general from Ile de France, the capital’s region. The Parigos were accepted as a necessary nuisance by those who could profit from their annual presence. To many others, not having a vested interest in their money, they were a blight, little better than the day-trippers from the other side of the border. They did however respect the byelaws, not like the cross-border day-trippers who squatted a large part of the available parking space, both authorized and unauthorized, abandoning their picnic litter wherever it suited them.
During the summer months Jack Reagan liked to invite his overseas friends to dine at a cidrerie called Labetxo Etxea to experience the regional cuisine. It was owned by a local friend, Beñat Basurko and his brother Matia who were amongst the town’s old families. Their Basque restaurant owed its style to the region’s ancient tradition of brewing a somewhat bitter cider and a simple, but delicious, cuisine consisting mostly of thick charcoal grilled beef ribs sprinkled with gros sel, grilled merluza served with a scattering of crispy fried garlic slices and flavoured with a spicy clear sauce, a recipe handed down over generations, a delicate balance of olive oil, cider vinegar, onions, pimentos, garlic and other ingredients.
Labetxo Etxea, in reality not a ciderie, was inspired by the tradition imported from the nearby northern Spanish Basque region. Most traditional cidreries were in effect reserves where cider matured in enormous fifteen thousand litre wooden casks, transformed into rough and ready eateries some of them seating hundreds of diners at long rustic banquet style tables. It was an extremely profitable business with the most popular fully booked every night during the summer months.
The Basurkos had once been a family of respected Hendaye landowners, but scandals and divisions in the family had slowly dilapidated the wealth accumulated over generations. On the death of his father Beñat discovered the debts were greater than the value of the property left to him and his brother and with that the promise of a modestly comfortable future vanished forcing the brothers to take out a mortgage to keep their business afloat.
The restaurant stood on the corner of a triangular block bordered by three streets; it was all that remained of a large farm their great grandparents had owned, since swallowed by the gradual expansion of the town. When Beñat was a child his father had inherited part of what had then remained which he divided into plots and sold keeping one to build a new family home and a general hardware store.
As the region’s prosperity grew, stimulated by the disappearance of a physical frontier, it became more attractive for both locals and visitors to cross into Spain to shop and eat out. The result was the Basurko’s hardware business went into a slow and irreversible decline as competition from Spain, and French DIY nation wide chains expanded, sounding the death knell for many small local businesses.
Inevitably the cost of eating out in Spain rose with the economic boom and many people, though they enjoyed the food and the folklore of the cidreries, were not willing to pay the price for the often rough and ready service. It at that moment the brothers decided to open a restaurant in Hendaye based on the successful Spanish model. Beñat’s idea was to offer the same menu with better service and without the drive to often isolated addresses in Spain through unfamiliar Basque strongholds or the problem of language.
It was a good decision. However, Labetxo Etxea lacked a certain authenticity. It was not a real cidrerie and it was situated in a quiet, not especially interesting, residential area of Hendaye; then it lacked the kind of rustic style people had come to expect of such eating places. On the other hand, moving to a better location was unaffordable, beyond the brother’s means, given the investment need and the kind of repayments to the bank.
In mid-2004 that suddenly changed. The property market was moving into top gear as Spanish promoters appeared, seeking residential construction sites near the Hendaye’s town centre and close to the border.
When Beñat was approached by a promoter interested in his restaurant he was at first surprised. It was summer and business was good and he had little time to give it serious thought. That autumn he was recontacted and offered almost twice the going price for the block of land with the homes, restaurant, adjoining outhouses and garages owned by the brothers. It was an offer that could not be refused, a once in a lifetime deal.
The Basurkos accepted the offer. Not only could they pay off their existing debts but they could also afford new and better homes. As for the restaurant it did not take them long to discover a rundown semi-abandoned farm house at a bargain price, a kilometre from the frontier crossing point at Behobia.
The N10 had once been the main road connecting Hendaye to Saint Jean de Luz, ten kilometres to the north, and Biarritz a further ten kilometres. It was still a busy road though mostly used by local and passing tourist traffic between France and Spain. Heavy goods traffic had been diverted to the nearby autoroute.
The building work was accomplished during the winter months. The stone farm house was transformed into a restaurant with little modifications to its traditional architecture. The façade and newly built car park were floodlight at night and the entrance clearly visible from the main road. Large illuminated panels on both sides of the road announced Labetxo Etxea – Sargadotegia – Jatexea – Cidrerie Traditionnelle. The Reagans were invited to the opening party as were the town’s notables. Labetxo Etxea was an immediate success; it was fully booked throughout the summer months with good weekend business during the low season.
The Basurko brothers never regretted their decision and their wives enjoyed a newfound respect when they moved into their new homes situated on the heights above Hendaye. The same could not be said for their former neighbours once the wrecking crews moved in to prepare the construction site for a five storey apartment building with underground parking.