Jon Clarke (Publisher & Editor)
WELL Madrid has finally become one of Europe’s dining capitals. Fact.
Having long been overshadowed by Barcelona and San Sebastian, it is at last bearing fruit from the Spanish food revolution that started marching south around 20 years ago.
No less than 29 places now carry at least one Michelin star in the city, while those on the road to getting one are well into the dozens, possibly hundreds.
The capital is a place that Americans and Japanese no longer just visit for its amazing art galleries and monuments, but fly in for bespoke gourmet tours and for reservations at its temples of dining, such as Deessa, DSTAgE or DiverXo (their capitals, not mine).
But while they eat among the best meals in the world at these three wonderful joints (all of which I’ve reviewed for the Olive Press over recent years), they often miss the very essence of what makes this city one of the most intriguing and charming places in Europe.
A city of extremes and contradictions, folklore and fanaticism, it has charmed and dazzled me since I moved here after university for two years in the 1990s.
Returning a few times a year ever since, I love its friendly locals, its distinct working class districts and its amazing weather (for a guiri, at least), which the locals describe as ‘nine months of winter, three months of hell’.
It is no surprise that Time Out singled out two barrios: Lavapies and, more recently, Embajadores, as two of the world’s trendiest neighbourhoods. A third, Vallecas, is bubbling under.
Predictably, leading to gentrification and rubberneckers, there are thankfully, at least, half a dozen more barrios that still maintain their authenticity and independence from tourism.
While here is not the place to tell you about Carabanchel or Users, it’s well worth a visit out into the outer suburbs to hunt out a restaurant or cultural spot.
In the centre, you can easily get off the beaten track in Malasana or Justicia and even in the heart of the casco historico there is so much to find if you’ve got the right guide.
I often ask Stephen Drake-Jones, an English historian and former professor, for a few hours to show me a couple of things I may not know.
The 75-year-old – who moved to Madrid a year before dictator Franco’s death in 1975 – has written various books on the city, including a new one on its most esteemed expat Ernest Hemingway.
He can wax lyrical about the reasons for citing the capital here in 1561, why the Bourbons are among the most inbred royals in the world and why exactly Madrid never surrendered during the Spanish Civil War.
Meet him outside the former Hotel Florida, where all the famous journalists and photographers stayed during the war, including Martha Gellhorn, John Dos Passos and Arthur Koestler, whose book Darkness at Noon is based on the conflict.
Now sadly converted into a brutalist-style Corte Ingles department store, he will take you upstairs to the ninth floor viewing deck and gourmet market, from where he will point out where the fascist rebels dug in their front line in the nearby Casa de Campo park.
He will tell you how their howitzers regularly hit the hotel, despite not supposedly aiming at it and he will then show you the bullet and shrapnel marks in the walls outside to prove it.
Next he might show you the place outside the Cortes, Spain’s House of Commons, where firebrand politician Dolores ‘La Pasionaria’ Ibarruri famously insisted the fascist rebels would ‘not pass’ or ¡No Pasarán!, which became the slogan of the conflict.
From here it’s only a two-minute stroll to Barrio de las Letras, a hive of pedestrianised streets where legendary scribes including Miguel de Cervantes, Federico Garcia Lorca, and Lope de Vega once lived and imbibed.
Take a tour around playwright Lope’s two century old house and garden and locate the very home where Cervantes wrote the global classic Don Quixote (and coincidentally there’s a statue of him and his faithful servant Sancho Panza in nearby Plaza Espana).
I have always enjoyed hanging out in Plaza de Santa Ana, where Russian leader Mikhail Gorbachev stayed at the iconic Reina Victoria hotel during 1991’s famous peace process with America. It’s a popular night haunt, with jazz bars, pubs and music venues.
Here you will also find a statue of tragic LGBT writer Garcia Lorca, from Granada, with a dove in his hand, and Hemingway’s favourite bar, Cerveceria Alemana, little changed in a century.
If you’ve got up nice and early you’ll be thinking of elevenses, or more than likely lunch is beckoning, so here are my tips for some traditional institutions and foods you must look out for:
Chocolate heaven
For breakfast, elevenses or a mid-afternoon pick me up, head for Chocolateria San Gines.
You’ll know you are there when you see the queue which normally snakes 100m down the street.
Open since 1894, the walls are lined with the most famous clientelle its possible to imagine, including Pele, Tony Curtis, Maradona, President Carter and Tina Turner.
The waiters jostle at the bar for mountains of cups of chocolate, plates of churros and fatter than possible porras and somehow carry them off into annexes, basements and corners.
If it’s not too cold outside grab a terrace table – or head to the takeaway window where your reward will arrive in a paper cup and bag!
As the manager told me they might get 5,000 clients in a morning, 2,000 in the afternoon and 2,000 in the evening. “It just never stops,” she explained.
Weird and wonderful
It’s just gone midday and time for some snacks and your first cold cana (obviously Mahou, the only beer the true Madrilenos can possibly consider).
‘Zarajos’ and ‘entresijos’ are among the curious and colourful range of earthy offerings you’ll find in some of the back street bars of the city.
A bowl of snails with chorizo is also a very typical tapa, as is a plate of pigs ears (orejas) in the Embajadores district.
The zarajos (sheep intestines) usually come on a wooden skewer and are lightly barbecued. “You need to eat them slowly and savour them,” explained teacher Cristina Herrera, 31 (pictured).
Meanwhile, ‘entresijos’ – the ‘mesentery’ of a lamb, which joins their small intestines to their abdomens – are not dissimilar to wild mushrooms, but slightly chewier.
Another unusual tapa is ‘gallinejas’, or chitterlings, which are the intestines of a suckling pig.
Meatballs in Malasana
The very opposite of Michelin starred fare, croquettes and meatballs may sound a bit dull, but try them at Casa Julio and your whole perception of these basic Madrid staples will change.
Madrilenos have been eating these delicious morsels here for a century and the Malasana restaurant, which opened in 1921, has been patronised by the likes of U2, who filmed a photo shoot here in 2003.
The very definition of a spit and sawdust joint in a grotty backstreet, best of all are the prices, which might get you a slice of bread in DiverXo.
Slice of history
Looking for a proper slap up meal then head to Botin, which is the oldest restaurant in the world, according to the Guinness Book of Records.
Open since 1725, Hemingway and Graham Greene waxed lyrical about the place and it’s the spot that foreign dignitaries are usually taken for a bit of authentic Madrid.
The legend goes that its wood oven has never gone out and the dish to try is roast suckling pig, sad as it may be, and easily one of the most succulent and richest meals you’ll eat anywhere in the world… But don’t have it for supper!
Sure, you might also try roast lamb, but I prefer it in nearby Segovia or Pedraza, where it just seems to have the edge.
Casa Varona
For something a bit more modern try 150 year old Casa Varona In the heart of Barrio de las Letras.
Open since 1877, it’s a no nonsense, great value tapas joint, with plenty of recipes reaching back a century or so.
Excellent wines by the glass, and an original list of their wares that serves as a tick box for what you fancy, be it fishy or meaty.
I particularly loved the home cooked gammon ham with Gorgonzola on toast, while a boiled egg recipe from the owner’s great grandfather was original, coming with tuna and mayonnaise.
Best of all though was the typical Madrileno dish of thistle stew with clams cooked in a hot pot.
www.casavarona.com
Sharpest tool in the box
It was once an ancient ironmonger on one of the busiest, scruffiest, thoroughfares from Atocha station into the heart of the city.
Now Ferreteria is one of the hippest spots in Madrid.
Beautifully designed you walk into what was once the shop with floor to ceiling wooden cupboards, which were once full of every nail, screw and light fitting imaginable.
You can perch at the bar or various spots in the entrance area, or try and get one of the tables in the expansive interior that goes down into a series of vaults underground.
Charm personified, this is where the chefs are found and the menu is full of alluring dishes, very much with a Madrid flavour.
This includes the meal of the moment, Torreznos, which are basically pork scratchings (or effectively roast suckling pig). Delicious, but make sure you share them though as they come in a very generous portion.
www.ferreteriarestaurante.com
The Barrera necessities
Ok, OK, Restaurante Barrera may only be two decades old, but the recipes here reach back centuries.
One of the most no-nonsense places to eat in the city, it was chosen as one of the favourites of London importer of Spanish produce, Brindisa, in a recent list.
I’d never heard of it and, no wonder, it sits in a highly unfashionable out of the way place, up on Calle Alonso Cano.
A bit Adams family, a bit French rural, it apparently featured in a Netflix documentary a few years ago. But what you first notice is peeling paintwork and a light bulb missing.
Ignore all that for Ana, who comes from the small nearby village of Santa Maria de la Alameda is a massive foodie, who sources her ingredients daily from the local markets.
So yes, there is no actual menu and your receipt, if you need one, will be hand-written and stamped… but you will definitely eat well.
This was clear when we were thrust a delicious ensaladilla with hot almonds and pumpkin seeds as an amuse bouche.
The artichoke hearts with foie, aubergine jam and pomegranates couldn’t be more seasonal – and were delicious!
We’re soon talking about seasonality in cooking and her favourite Arabic-style way to cook quinces, while she admits the Boletus mushrooms, I like the sound of, are frozen. No worries, I tell her, and they turn out to be delicious, chunky and gelatinous.
Then came the hake (merluza) which was oven baked and came with a typical pimiento de pequillo – red pepper – deep red and proud!
The kid chops are a bit too rangy and so typical of the meseta… Tasty but short of flesh… And come from Jaén as it turns out!
An amazing lemon meringue pie – quite different to anything seen in Madrid – more than makes up for it though.
Post dinner drinks
Tablao Villa Rosa is one of the most beautiful bars in the world. Having featured in a couple of Pedro Almodovar’s films (almost all of them are set in the capital or nearby), it is a great place to take a glass of wine or cana while often being able to watch some flamenco or a jazz singer. Later, it becomes a bit of drinking den and a place to meet friends.
Chic it out
You’ll now be ready to take your excursion into the early hours, of which Madrid is famous.
The two traditional haunts to hang out are Malasaña and Santa Ana where there are hundreds of buzzing bars to traipse around.
A more traditional and glamorous place that has been open for a century is Chicote, which actually calls itself a ‘museum’.
Up on Gran Via this is where Hemingway would hold court after a bullfight or when he was trying to impress a lady, during one of his many stays in the city.
It was also where Frank Sinatra, Ava Gardner and Sofia Loren would come for a margarita thanks to the skills of barman Pedro Chicote who learned his trade at the nearby Ritz hotel.
www.museochicote.com
