Europe Chevron. Spain Chevron. Madrid Chevron. The Spanish capital has been synonymous with sundown-to-sunup nightlife since long before Hemingway pronounced that in Madrid, "Nobody goes to bed until they have killed the night. But even if you're more of a cocktail-and-conversation kind of reveler, you'll find no shortage of swanky cocktail bars, vinotecas, and live music venues. Here, we've rounded up the best bars in Madrid—so start sipping.
A welcome departure from the campy clubs of Chueca Madrid's "gayborhood" , Cazador doesn't make a big deal about being a gay bar—and that's precisely what draws such an eclectic, nonconforming crowd on weekend nights.
Roll up with a few friends around 11 p. Welcome to the kind of vinoteca that local wine geeks and top somms like to keep to themselves. Casual, affordable, and stocked with some of the most envelope-pushing bottles in the country—think, a bubbly xarello made according to the ancestral method—Bendito is Madrid's premier natural wine bar. T-shirted somms who know their roots from their fruits will happily pour tastes from two or three bottles before filling up your glass.
Importantly, they know the story behind each choice, which makes the wine taste that much better. At Macera TallerBar, the bearded bartenders, exposed ceiling pipes, and bassy cool-kid jams blaring from the speakers scream Brooklyn or Kreuzberg, but the cocktail menu—which leans on house-macerated spirits—is distinctly Spanish.
Don't bother asking for a Beefeater this or a Maker's that—there's no brand-name booze in sight. Instead, choose from a panoply of house-infused spirits like ginger-scented gin divine in a gimlet or cherry-steeped whiskey you've never had a Manhattan like this. Bleary-eyed revelers sit elbow to elbow carbo-loading on spaghetti like Olympic marathoners—even though it's 5 a.
