Malasaña tapas and drinks guided tour

Begin at a bar that's poured vermouth from the barrel since the late 1920s, its tiled walls and zinc counter barely changed since. Taste a local vermouth cocktail, the same drink locals turned to during Madrid's wildest years after Franco's death, alongside traditional tapas at the bar.A short walk brings you to a taquería run by a mother and daughter, where the birria comes from a family recipe three chiles and twenty spices deep. It's Madrid's first specialist of its kind, proof that the neighbourhood's food scene stopped being only Spanish once the city's borders opened for good. Your table is already reserved, so there's no waiting behind the crowd at the door.Continue to a bar built inside a former state-run tobacco shop, the original counter and cabinetry still standing behind a working kitchen. Taste traditional croquetas made the two-day way, paired with a curated white wine chosen to complement the food.The evening closes at a reopened bar built around natural wines and a short, quality-focused menu. Toast with a glass of cava alongside Spanish cheese and a classic Madrid-style potato salad, a fitting final course to close a night that moved through more than two centuries of the same neighbourhood.