Food & Beer Culture

What do you eat with beer in Madrid? First, the tapa, often served alongside the drink in many places. Good pairings include patatas bravas, fried potato cubes with spicy sauce, tortilla de patatas, the potato omelet, and bocadillo de calamares, a baguette with fried squid rings, considered a Madrid classic.

Beer makes a good companion here because it's cold, fizzy, and mild. It rinses the frying oil from the palate without overpowering the salty dish, and its low bitterness doesn't clash with either squid or potato. Gilda, the skewer of olive, anchovy, and pickled pepper, also brings salt and acidity that a pale lager complements nicely.

The city's dishes tend to be hearty. Callos a la madrileña, the tripe stew, and cocido madrileño, a stew with chickpeas and meat, are winter staples. In Madrid, these are often paired with wine, but a beer afterward is also popular.

Beer is part of everyday public life. On Sundays, the flea market El Rastro winds through the La Latina neighborhood, and afterward the bars on Calle Cava Baja and nearby streets fill up. In summer, life shifts to the terrazas, the outdoor seating areas of the bars.

Among the city's festivals are San Isidro around May 15, the feast day of the city's patron saint, and the Verbena de la Paloma in August. At both, beer is simply part of the scene, the drink of the street. There are many serving sizes, but in Madrid the small glass remains the standard, since it lets you visit many bars in a single evening.