Ava Gardner and the great Lola Flores for drinks in Madrid
I suspect that my first gin and tonic would be at the Cock bar, blessed be Calle Reina, as enthusiastic as only a puppy from the provinces can be in front of Pepe Astiárraga's bar . The Cock, if you almost have to cross yourself, proudly shows off the ancestry of to be the oldest bar in Spain in addition to Small homeland of Manolete and Francis Bacon , at the bar they remember him: “having three martinis before dinner; a true gentleman with a child's rosy complexion, having been a good gin drinker ”. He was madly in love with his lover from Madrid and with the Prado Museum. As for no.
La Reina is a street that seems to have been written by Benito Pérez Galdós because many things happen in the space of a tile, that's what they say about Butragueño and José Tomás, “a chotis in a span”. Play short, say the right thing, write without frills like Juan Marse . I hate soccer and bulls but I know a bit about bars , so maturity (mine) translated into crossing the street and entering Del Diego , substitute the combination with cucumber for the Dry Martini and quietly learn around the teaching of Fernando and David, I will tell you that almost everything I've learned about empathy and service (which is what I appreciate most in a restaurant) I have learned it in this bar . The rest are fatigue. The perfect drink, the fries from the La Burgalesa churrería, the very low tables and that certain modernist air of this infinite Madrid —the one with marble and Ibuprofen, take life by the neck and stop the world— a little while longer, stay another one and we'll see tomorrow. suspended time . They call that temple.
I learned to choose (which is learning to say no) when I embraced the quilted Chester in the Richelieu and crossed the sealed wood of the Milford , surprised at so many tassels and so much canvas around the nautical, in the Barrio Salamanca. I do not know. I sense that there are places where you drink better but what I want is to be happy ; of the capitol in Juan Bravo 7 I grilled until exhaustion but I don't do it anymore because it has fully entered that drawer that we all hide called 'confidences' on the side of Portrait of a woman on fire either The Barajuela of Luis Perez . You understand me: these are things for me and for the people I love. The Milford is synonymous with the most decadent and burlanga Madrid ; penniless aristocrats, consultants with braces and writers in search of amazement, I am one of the latter. I read in his menu that they put, just like that, “his gastronomy is adapted to the latest currents”; you have to love them.
Sometime in 2008 after a dinner at the Sergi Arola Gastro (I still miss him in the Villa and Court, the truth is that I always thought that Sergi and Madrid are such for each other) I know a kid from Buenos Aires who takes his first steps in a city that no longer understands cocktails without the: his name was Diego Cabrera and that basement became my particular Macondo in Zurbano . We talked a lot, drank more and dissected historical cocktails, like an expert on hedonism: the alchemy behind the miracle —nothing to do with the image one might have of a barman, between a psychologist and a night bird . I wrote a lot about her Manhattan . This boy glued to a smile seeks perfection beyond the candlelight, collects cocktail shakers and has made a Chair out of enthusiasm. That's why he's the boss.
Diego is perhaps the most visible face of a generation of bartenders who have positioned Madrid, and of this I have no doubt, as the cocktail capital here and one of the essentials beyond Canigó; he captains without a whip a litter of bars where customer courtship reigns, which is what I always expect; "Everything okay, Mr. Terrés." All good, damn it. From Angelita de David and Mario Villalón to 1862 Dry Bar in the street of the Pez, republic of Malasaña; since Baton Rouge from Diego González to Santamaría in Ballesta , formerly a brothel and now a chapel. What city huh? I never get tired of saying it: in Madrid you have to drink it, in Madrid you have to surrender to sin.