Rodilla Celebrates its 75th Anniversary

Madrid’s most typical sandwiches celebrate their anniversary in association with the new M Certified Product brand.

The firm dates back to 1939, when Antonio Rodilla opened a small establishment in Madrid’s Plaza de Callao on the Christmas Eve that followed the Spanish Civil War, a time of great dearth. The entrepreneur from Salamanca opened a delicatessen and decided to make a new sandwich with leftover ham; he then went on to create a Russian salad sandwich to make the most of the leftovers of canned vegetables. By 1940 the firm was well known for the special bread it baked and introduced in its novel understanding of food. What he could never have imagined was the subsequent expansion of the firm, or the fact that his name would soon appear in the neon signs of his new establishments in Doha, Mexico City or Washington DC.

The firm’s 75th anniversary coincides with another celebration in the food and agriculture sector of the Region of Madrid, the M Producto Certificado, brand to which Rodilla subscribes, thereby becoming the first company to bear the new emblem that distinguishes the food of Madrid.