“The best draught beer in Madrid and possibly in Spain,” says chef Rodrigo de la Calle without a hint of doubt in reference to what happens in the taps of a coquettish and legendary bar in Conde Duque. The bar is El Cangrejero (Calle de Amaniel, 25), the first in the city to have a Mahou beer tap.
And the context in which de la Calle makes these statements is in the context of a report on his must-haves in Madrid published in the Michelin Guide. A journey through his gastronomic Madrid in which he highlights places as varied as the Tasquita de Enfrente, the Mercado San Miguel, Toma Café or the aforementioned El Cangrejero.
When asked to recommend a bar to go to in Madrid (“and there are quite a few”, he says), de la Calle says: “without a doubt I would say El Cangrejero”. As for the reasons, the chef is clear that the main focus is the way they serve the beer.
But when he highlights other things he also refers to the giant pork rinds that they fry and then split with their hands. And he highlights the Ramón Peña mussels -among many other preserves, given that preserves are the specialty of the house and they have rarities such as fried anchovies… in preserves- of which he says that “with four mussels squeezed inside you can die”.
Life and work of Rodrigo de la Calle
Rodrigo de la Calle owns a curious Michelin-starred restaurant in the Ponzano area. The restaurant is called El Invernadero and the curiosity comes from a concept almost more typical of a soccer player who aims at retirement or a Bartleby on duty than of a chef. De la Calle does not cook meat or fish because “it bores him”.
It is not that he is a vegetarian but that he has decided to sublimate the vegetable cuisine to make what the restaurant itself baptizes as green haute cuisine.