Chapandaz Bar

Argüelles / Bilbao, Madrid –

A local bar frequented by Madrid’s college students, Chapandaz offers reasonably priced cocktails served in glasses the size of goldfish bowls to barhoppers looking for a drinking experience with a Spanish flair.

Although the bar itself is not subterranean, Chapandaz has taken the concept of the basement “cave bars” for which Madrid is famous and given it a literal interpretation with low ceilings, jagged and mottled walls, and dripping faux stalactites that create the look of a natural cave.

Old-fashioned lanterns on the walls and hidden inside the crevices of the stone add to the unique environment and lend the bar a dark mystique.

Obscure caves notwithstanding, the atmosphere is decidedly upbeat as hordes of pleasure-seeking students from both Madrid and abroad pack the two mini-cave rooms or lounge at the huge curved bar that dominates the main room.

Besides the oversized drinks, patrons can indulge in the bar’s specialty, leche pantera (panther milk) – a strangely delicious mixture of gin and cinnamon combined with a flowing stream of milk poured directly from the artificial rocks in at Chapandaz's ceiling.