The bars of Madrid are boiling again

Saturday at noon. A long queue of customers patiently waits for their turn to enter Revolt House, a Madrid classic located on Calle de Latoneros, a few meters from the Plaza Mayor. The claim, your breaded cod skewer, the most reputed in Madrid along with Casa Labra. The tavern, opened in 1966, now barely seats 15 people. Despite appearances, Jorge López, manager, laments. “There is a long queue but before the covid we had a capacity of 30 people and now, restriction after restriction, we have come to nothing.” From October 4, bar consumption is allowed “as long as the consumer is seated”. Word of the Official Gazette of the Community of Madrid.

Good news? At Casa Revuelta they don’t even want to hear about placing stools in line to win some customers. “It does not compensate us for the small size of the place, the waiters would find it too difficult to move. We trust that in December, if things go well & mldr; we can work as before the pandemic. For now, we compensate quickly, “explains López as he exchanges a couple of foreign clients, already dispatched, for a group of young people visiting the center. Pim-pam, this is the real cod route.

A few hours later, at the Rastro, the Bar Cruz it is abuzz. A group of thirty-somethings took to the bar before attending a concert by La Perla, a Colombian group, in a nearby room. They drink and have tapas at the bar … but standing up. Aurelio, one of the waiters, explains that “the stool system greatly reduced the space & rdquor; so “after consulting with the police” they decided to allow people to test their knives – a house specialty – without having to sit down. They keep, yes, the tables attached to the bar, as a vestige of previous restrictions. The foam of the beers spills through them and not through the tin of the counter, which is reserved for the bustle of empty plates and glasses that are arriving from one end of the bar to another.

Up to 25% of income with the bars

Madrid is a long bar, from Carabanchel to Quintana, from Prosperity to Ambassadors and for many locals, a true backbone that has been battered since March 2020. In Hospitality Madrid, the reference association of the sector in the community, They consider the bar “a strategic area”, especially for the premises that do not have a terrace and celebrate that the ban on consumption has been lifted, but they ask for more. “The bar with seated service contributes 15% to the billing of the premises, which represents about 5.8 million euros per day throughout the Community of Madrid. However, this percentage could rise up to 25% if consumption is allowed standing “, they specify from Hostelería Madrid.

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Numbers and more numbers like those that Daniel Rojo, from La Ardosa on Calle Santa Engracia, does every day in Chamberí. “We are billing 20% ​​less than before the pandemic but taking into account that now we open 40 more hours a week, it may actually be 40% less, “he calculates. Bar stools are his particular game of chairs, even though he has little to play with:” The full capacity of the bar is 42 people, but right now I only have 22 seats. Bar stools help, but what if a person comes alone and wants to have some bravas at a high table and not at a bar? There I lose three clients who could share that table. Luckily, 10 years ago I convinced Pepe, my boss – retired at 80 years before the summer after a lifetime laying rods – to ride the terrace. If not for her – I don’t know what would become of us“.

Nevertheless, “there is a desire to bar“, confirms Rubén Muñoz, in charge of the Sidi, a Malaysian legend (since 1943 no less!), which reopened its doors, completely renovated, in the middle of last July. After the fifth wave bump, they have taken flight and they look forward to how their photogenic marble bar “can fit between 12 and 14 people where before only 8 or 9 would fit.” There they meet, still at a distance, a young couple from the neighborhood and a pensioner in their seventies. “We didn’t know you without the mask, Juan,” they tell him. “Not me without the dog,” the veteran replied. Laughter and a toast with jugs of beer without bumping them, yes. It will be true that Madrid wanted to bar.