18009 Granada
Spain
Ph: + 00 34 958 22 66 62
Timetable: Mo-Sun 6am to1am.
Website (in Spanish)
Located in the charming Mariana Pineda Square, this is a traditional place to eat churros and chocolate (or churros and coffee as it is also traditional) all day long, as well as some simple traditional Spanish food and ice-cream cups in summer.
This café is really old, with a clear Art Deco that is actually original, not an imitation. The founder was Antonio Suárez Martin, the current owner's grandfather (the owner, an old man, seats everyday in a corner at the entrance these days) and this was a originally a door-to-door fresh milk delivery business turned into the café we know today in 1922. It was originally called Café Football.
This café is mostly known for his churros, but they are open from dawn to dusk and serve everything, Spanish breakfast, lunches, tapas and dinners, with a main focus on Spanish toasts, bocadillos (rolls), cold meat boards, traditional Spanish tapas and raciones (like tortilla de patatas, piquillo peppers filled with fresh cod, gazpacho, salmorejo, several types of paella, and many other local seasonal dishes that are little known outside Spain). You can also find cannelloni, pizza and crepes but I wouldn't go there for anything that is not traditional Spanish.
Their coffee is OK.
They have gorgeous ice-cream cups in summer, but I am very picky with my ice-cream and I find them good, but a bit too sweet and thick.
The place can be extremely busy at rush coffee hours in Spain and on Sundays, and especially in winter, even the upper floor, where a large seating area is located and open for those times is packed to the rafters. Their outdoor terrace is lovely, and it is always a favourite in summer and on any sunny day if you don't mind the smoke, as this is the café's smoking area.
The service is fast but the old staff, some of whom I have seen behind the bar since I was a teen, are totally unfriendly, with a funeral attendee's face, no smile, no niceties, nothing that acknowledges the visitor as a human being unless you are a regular. I understand that sometimes they are so crowded that there is no time for anything that is not getting your order and delivering it to your table; however, the service varies little when the café is quiet and a few customers are in the café. If you are a foreigner, rest assured that is not you, or your Spanish accent or the fact that you speak no Spanish, they treat locals the same and are unwelcoming, something that greatly unnerves me. Yet, this is a classic café, and they do what they do well, how it should be, so you have to grant them that, something that explains that the business is never in decline or empty.
They open long hours and till late, so you can go there to end you drinking night and finish by putting something solid in your belly, churros and chocolate being the traditional way of ending your outing if you have a certain age and your outing ends around midnight. Most youngsters would be drinking and partying until way later.
One of those places that I always visit when I'm in Granada.
