MNF > Articles by: Madrid No Frills

Madrid No Frills

Behind Rocablanca's bar
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Cafetería Rocablanca: classic Spanish bar food done perfectly

Have you ever been walking along the street in Madrid and thought to yourself: 'Quick caña and tortilla?' Me too. If you happen to have that thought whilst on Calle de Fuencarral, you're seconds away from making it a reality. But if you're half way across the city, jump on a metro - it's worth the ride.
The tiny entrance to a labyrinth of storage units
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Eight eccentric museum-worthy collections found only in El Rastro

There are few better ways to spend a Sunday in Madrid than strolling around El Rastro, but if you don't have time to explore this 400-year-old market as many times as we have (possibly into three figures), then let us help you hit the ground running with seven of our most eccentric finds.
Calle Embajadores 13
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Ghost buildings

We’re in a surreal time in Madrid, somewhere between crisis and post-crisis. With the economy in motion again, the city’s charming madrileño hum is being shattered by the crash-bang-drill-beep of construction work and, for a brief moment, a peculiar phenomenon is appearing.
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Illustrations by a boy who grew up in Chueca

Growing up in Chueca was eye-opening for Miguel. He was exposed to things that some parents would do their best to protect their child from seeing. He was surrounded by drugs, sex, filth and death – the foundations upon which Chueca’s character is built.
Antonio on the emergency phone
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The last toy hospital in Spain

Once upon a time in Madrid, in a neighbourhood named after the Pacific Ocean, there was a man named Antonio, who kept the child inside all of us alive. The Toy Hospital’s customers aren’t typically children. Antonio’s customers are adults – some are toy collectors or savvy antiques dealers, but many of them are nostalgic souls whose childhood is preserved in the peculiar object clutched in Antonio’s paint-stained hands.
Jesús, owner of El Rincón de Marco
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El Rincón de Marco: Lavapiés’ foodie portal to Cuba

One end of Calle Cabestreros opens out onto the buzzing 24-hour Plaza Nelson Mandela so you'd be forgiven for not paying much attention to the opposite end. But illuminating the dimly lit end of the street with a distinctive dusk-pink glow is a little Cuban bar blasting Caribbean music through its sealed windows.