Frank Sinatra and Ava Gardner
“What if I drink alcohol? What part of 'I'm a writer' don't you understand?
Bilbao is beautiful. It is perhaps the best example of that honest, civic and “true” Euskadi; a city that refuses to surrender to tourists, that knows how to be a hostess but that does not intend to stop being what it is: that is called identity and it is a luxury that is less and less prolific every day.
This Bilbao is bustling thanks to a fascinating cultural, vital and gastronomic offer: Mine either Nerua as creative restaurants, Txakoli either dance like houses where they pamper the product and kuma either kimtxu as more “fusion” alternatives.
The walks along the estuary, Hockney at the Guggenheim, the mist in front of Bourgeois's "Mama", so many fresh fish stalls in the Mercado de La Ribera, the Bilbaina Jazz Club concerts and life in every corner of the Seven Streets.
And how do you drink? Beyond Madrid or Barcelona (light years ahead of the rest in terms of bartender offerings), Bilbao is one of the metropolises where it is easier to be happy in front of a bar.
There's variety, talent, history, and culture—and most importantly, a serious, educated clientele. What is a bar without good customers? In Bizkaia they live and drink.
I remember an anecdote: when Paul Desmond was asked how he got the perfect pitch from his sax, the genius replied: “Look, I just wanted it to sound like a Dry-Martini.” That's what Bilbao sounds like.
SIR WINSTON CHURCHILL
"At Sir Winston Churchill we don't sell drinks, we sell smiles" ; Churchill is the unchanging beacon in the face of so much hipster nonsense and he does it, for starters, with the best name in bar history: Sir Winston Churchill.
More than forty years giving good drinks and leather Chesters in front of the Plaza Sagrado Corazón in Bilbao; one of his great cocktails is the Vanilla caipiroska (a caipirinha adapted to the new times, with slight touches of vanilla) but a simple drink is also a good option —a silver bullet, without going any further; comfortable sofas, dim lighting, some Blue Note vinyl and a discreet bartender. What more could you want?
CAFE RESIDENCE
Manu Iturregi is one of the classics of the Ensanche and the Villa and also one of the great names of cocktails in Spain; He has been at the helm of the Residence since 2003 and it is now, without a doubt, one of the temples of good Bilbao drinking (and of the international folk scene, too.
But almost the best thing - apart from the inclusion of the Residence in the Best Whiskey Bars Of The World in Whiskey Magazine and its academic Old fashioned — It is his harangue in front of the world: "A Most Unusual Bartender, the Man Behind the Moustache."
At the head of the Residence is Manu Iturregui, one of the great names in Spanish cocktails
THE MOSCOW MULE
We continue in the Guggenheim area and adjacent to Plaza Moyúa by the hand of a newcomer: the Moscow Mule. Behind are the kids of Mind Shakers (consulting and alcohol training: "mind shakers") but what is best is that, in addition to drinking wonderfully, you also eat.
We like bars with a tapas menu because that's where we imagine the future of cocktails: pecking tasty – ceviches or nachos with ricotta cheese – and universal drinks such as Guanajuato Mule ; grapefruit, lime, ancho chili syrup Y ginger beer . Bravo.
The Moscow Mule, tasty snacks and universal drinks
SIXTY-ONE
Another newcomer who is not so new… Sixty-One is the evolution of that Splash & Crash by Mariscal (there are still some of his works) and also the bar at the Grand Domine Hotel , one of the best views of the city in front of Puppy, the Guggenheim and in the heart of the Art District.
An immense marble table, bartenders in jackets and the know-how of Aitor, a young bartender from the Fran Ceacero school.
I know it's a classic: drink well in a hotel bar , but what better way to start the day than with a Bloody Mary? Blessed Dean Martin: "I feel sorry for people who don't drink, imagine waking up in the morning and knowing that the day can't get any better."
Sixty-One, the lobby of the Grand Hotel Domine
GIN FIZZ
This place boasts of having the expertise of Fran Ceacero , president of the Bizkaia Barmen Association (founded in 1967), before at the Café Bernardo and today behind the bar of the Gin Fizz Cocktail Bar in Lersundi Kalea, in the middle of the Ensanche.
Classic cocktails, vermouths, sours, natural teas, infusions, wines (wines!), courses, fizzes and gin and tonics how we like them: gin, tonic, ice and lemon.
Plus? Atelier Bilbao 67 or the terrace Ercilla ; Bilbao and our desire to drink never ends; and it is that here we think a bit like W. C. Fields, “everyone needs to believe in something. I think I'll have another drink."
The Gin Fizz has the expertise of Fran Ceacero