Hints and tips:
...My flatmate and I, normally a bit worse for wear from partying the night before, would walk from our place down through Chueca — stopping off at a bar called El Tigre, where large plates of tapas appeared...
...The wine bar and restaurant has recently been taken over by former Brat chef Oliver Sharpe....
...Then cruise the city’s timeworn chigres (rustic bars) such as Casa Lín on Avenida de Colón and Casa Pachu on Calle Alfonso III el Magno, where the cider flows freely along with platters of fabes con almejas...
...There’s a choice of fine dining, saloon bar or a casual poolside café — ideal for unruly families — and space by the pool to sunbathe in somewhat retro style....
...There’s also a Chilean called Richard Riquelme Vega, he’s nicknamed El Rico, or the rich guy....
...The area remains true to that spirit, alive at all hours with the thrum of restaurants, wine bars and rumba clubs....
...Some customers come in every day, and visit with family at weekends he says, or they might try Terzio, his tapas bar across the road, to mix things up....
...One favourite is El Gato Orgulloso, or The Proud Cat (“cat” being slang for an authentic Madrileño), which strikes a good balance between bitterness and sweetness....
...Our family home is five minutes from the sea, so it doesn’t take long for me to see the waves....
...El Catrin is the resident Mexican restaurant, boasting fire pits in the winter and Day of the Dead decor year-round. Oysters can be gulped down at Pure Spirits....
...It’s reminiscent of many other restaurants that I love, like Estela in New York, or what San Francisco’s Bar Tartine used to be, because Mikey was a cook there....
...Instead, he went to Arahy, a restaurant a block from the Parque de El Retiro....
...Now, the streets are lined with boutiques selling wafty cotton dresses and silver jewellery, townhouse hotels and a range of fine dining and family-friendly restaurants....
...Some make their own following family recipes. Some buy the ingredients in the market then take it to a mole stall to be ground in ancient machines....
...They even make and sell their own brand of coffee, buying green beans from family-owned importer Sandalj (a legend among serious baristas)....
...Rooftop spa and fitness centre, check (for summer); semi-private dining room in the original El Quijote restaurant, check. Another, eventual French-ish restaurant, check....
...The packed restaurant means the bar staff here are extremely busy, so they have provided mezcal guidance on the menu instead — choose between “silky and smooth” or “dark and smoky” varieties....
...A rooftop restaurant offered sushi and mezcal cocktails, there were DJs in the buzzing bar, and slick, colourful interiors by the Iranian-French designer India Mahdavi....
...Loyalty is reinforced by restaurants referring to their staff as “the family” or “the community”....
...Apart from restorative afternoons at Riad Mena and Howell James and Vanessa Branson’s rooftop restaurant El Fenn (which became a kind of clubhouse for stranded friends from London and Paris), her focus turned...
...In 2018, Donna Lennard opened a branch of her Il Buco restaurant (also in Manhattan and the Hamptons) here, and the village has a new cocktail bar, Overall, with a funky low-lit interior and cutting-edge...
...At Fidalgo, an old-school, family-run restaurant on Rua da Barroca, which Mendes and his father first visited in the early 1980s, we start with plates of smoke-cured sausage, known as linguiça....
...His loss hit hard in a city that has often seen its struggle to return to normal after the pandemic through the prism of restaurant and bars’ attempts to cope with coronavirus....
...At his El Toro Taco Bar, one of the stations inside The Anderson, try the taco pato confitado with preserved duck, roasted pumpkin and pickled red onions....
...Established in 1973, the alimentari has since become a Fulham foodie attraction on a par with the nearby Spanish restaurant El Metro, frequented by west London celebrities and politicians alike....
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