Author and photos: Abbas Asaria
It’s impossible to walk past Bar La Gloria, with its beautifully old-school sign, without sticking your head in. If the charming tiles and decor doesn’t manage to lure you in, the menu will for sure.
It’s a very pleasant, chilled out no-frills bar in Prosperidad, where you can enjoy eavesdropping the older clientele over their glasses of wine, or watching other barrio regulars pop in to collect various raciones they’d previously ordered – as I did one rainy day at the start of last winter, when fulfilling the kind of of callos craving that hits when the seasons change.
I got to know the owner Santi, between him serving the occasional customer, enjoying a slice of birthday cake with a regular who brought some left over from his party the day before, and occasionally checking the the pot where he was preparing the next day’s callos. He first started visiting La Gloria as a customer, after finishing shifts at a nearby restaurant, and started working there soon after, around 1995.
“I’ve really maintained the essence of the bar I took over 12 years ago,” he tells me over the sound of quiet conversation and a 70’s film playing on a small TV, “People like it how it is and so do I. With how everything in Madrid has become more modern, there are much fewer places like this, and I’ve enjoyed keeping it like a traditional tasca.”
He’s not only talking about the character and how the bar looks – but also the food, which he takes a lot of pride in. “The fried aubergines are la reina de la casa, you can’t leave without trying them,” he tells me. “It’s the go-to order of the barrio regulars, and they’ll build the rest of their meal around that.”
The fried anchovies are also great, with a thicker, crunchier batter than how they’re usually done in Spain, and there’s an enticing selection of offal on the menu that I’m keen to work my way through.
My personal highlights include the fried lambs brains (and the joy it gives me to see them whole on the bar top), the gambas al ajillo, and the fact that whenever I’ve grabbed a bocadillo on my way to the Estadio Metropolitano to eat at half-time, Atléti have never lost.
Abbas Asaria is a British chef and food writer based in Madrid. Follow him on Instagram, where he shares his vibrant recipes inspired by his adventures around the world – especially his story celebrating the crisp factories of Madrid.
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