Glorieta de Bilbao Cafe Comercial DSC00185

The Café Comercial is a

café A coffeehouse, coffee shop, or café is an establishment that primarily serves coffee of various types, notably espresso, latte, and cappuccino. Some coffeehouses may serve cold drinks, such as iced coffee and iced tea, as well as other non-ca ...

located at the Glorieta de Bilbao in central

Madrid Madrid ( , ) is the capital and most populous city of Spain. The city has almost 3.4 million inhabitants and a metropolitan area population of approximately 6.7 million. It is the second-largest city in the European Union (EU), and ...

Spain , image_flag = Bandera de España.svg , image_coat = Escudo de España (mazonado).svg , national_motto = ''Plus ultra'' (Latin)(English: "Further Beyond") , national_anthem = (English: "Royal March") , i ...

. It is one of the city's oldest cafés, founded 21 March 1887 in the era of the

Bourbon Restoration in Spain The Restoration ( es, link=no, Restauración), or Bourbon Restoration (Spanish: ''Restauración borbónica''), is the name given to the period that began on 29 December 1874—after a coup d'état by General Arsenio Martínez Campos ended the F ...

.Peter Besas, (2009),''«Historia y anécdotas de las fondas madrileñas»'', 1ª Ed. La Librería, It was a center for literary

tertulia A tertulia (, ; pt, tertúlia ; ca, tertúlia ) is a social gathering with literary or artistic overtones, especially in Iberia or in Spanish America. Tertulia also means an informal meeting of people to talk about current affairs, arts, etc. The ...

s in the period following the

Spanish Civil War The Spanish Civil War ( es, Guerra Civil Española)) or The Revolution ( es, La Revolución, link=no) among Nationalists, the Fourth Carlist War ( es, Cuarta Guerra Carlista, link=no) among Carlists, and The Rebellion ( es, La Rebelión, lin ...

. A remnant of Madrid's golden age, it was also one of the first Madrid cafés to employ women among those serving tables.Angel del Río López, (2003), «''Los viejos cafés de Madrid''», Ed. Madrid, , p. 207-209

Characteristics

The café has two entrances, one of them a

revolving door A revolving door typically consists of three or four doors that hang on a central shaft and rotate around a vertical axis within a cylindrical enclosure. Revolving doors are energy efficient as they, acting as an airlock, prevent drafts, thus de ...

facing onto the Glorieta de Bilbao. Large windows provide a view of the café from the street and vice versa. There are two floors; the upper floor is home to a

chess club A chess club is a club formed for the purpose of playing the board game of chess. Chess clubs often provide for both informal and tournament games and sometimes offer league play. Traditionally clubs host over the board, face to face chess more t ...

, the ''Club de Ajedrez Café Comercial'', and chess boards are always available there. The café also has a full bar on each floor. The present configuration reflects a major remodel in 1953. The café is famous for its hot chocolate with

churro A churro (, ) is a type of fried dough from Spanish and Portuguese cuisine. They are also found in Latin American cuisine and in other areas that have received immigration from Spanish and Portuguese-speaking countries, especially in the Sou ...

s and its '' picatostes'' (a type of fried bread).

History

The Café Comercial first opened 21 March 1887, according to the license granted to Don Antonio Gómez Fernández.Rafael Montal Montesa, (2001), ''«El chocolate "Semillas de Oro"»'', Zaragoza; chapter: "los Cafés" The Glorieta de Bilbao then had the famous ''Pozos de la Nieve'' which stored snow from the Sierra de Guadarrama on the property of Paulo Chaquías. The coffee served there was much praised at the time. Marcial Guareño composed a

schottische The schottische is a partnered country dance that apparently originated in Bohemia. It was popular in Victorian era ballrooms as a part of the Bohemian folk-dance craze and left its traces in folk music of countries such as Argentina ("chotis"Span ...

whose lyrics ran, in part: Business meetings in that era gave the café its name. The café is strongly associated with the intellectual circles of

Regenerationism Regenerationism ( es, Regeneracionismo) was an intellectual and political movement in late 19th century and early 20th century Spain. It sought to make objective and scientific study of the causes of Spain's decline as a nation and to propose reme ...

who hoped to reform Spain after its 1898 defeat in the war versus the United States. The café passed to the Contreras family in 1909 and continued as a famous Madrid institution. Don Antonio Contreras was a native of

Havana Havana (; Spanish: ''La Habana'' ) is the capital and largest city of Cuba. The heart of the La Habana Province, Havana is the country's main port and commercial center.

. It is said that during the

the café was taken over by its own employees. After the war, it was frequented by the journalists of '' Arriba'', the official organ of the Movimiento Nacional and later of

Francoist Spain Francoist Spain ( es, España franquista), or the Francoist dictatorship (), was the period of Spanish history between 1939 and 1975, when Francisco Franco ruled Spain after the Spanish Civil War with the title . After his death in 1975, Spai ...

Notes

{{DEFAULTSORT:Cafe Comercial Restaurants in Madrid 1887 establishments in Spain Coffeehouses and cafés in Spain