The Salesas neighborhood could be compared to the Salamanca neighborhood for its buildings and its people, but the former has managed to combine the most exclusive side of design, gastronomy and art, with a certain alternative touch. The result is a friendly neighborhood, which concentrates creatives and where the most varied businesses flourish between pedestrian streets and squares, such as Paris or the one that gives its name to the neighborhood, which give it a quiet air and make it a perfect area for strolling.
Having coffee in Salesas
Golda
Golda is a coffee shop serving Argentine-Israeli pastries and coffee from Hola Coffee. It is not clear if the name refers to the first woman president of Israel, Golda Meir, but behind it are the same owners of restaurants like Fayer and Patio Siete that follow the same Jewish gastronomic tradition. Between chocolate and pistachio Babkas and Rugelachs, they also serve açai bowls and matcha lattes.
Calle de Orellana, 19
La Duquesita (pastry shop)
The best chocolate palm in the world? We confirm. Think of that puff pastry, so perfect, so crunchy in its right measure, but soft in the heart; that dark chocolate film, in its perfect proportion? La Duquesita is its palmeras and much more: it is the Madrid atelier of the renowned pastry chef Oriol Balaguer. Here, in this sort of old apothecary (it’s a 1914 building) with a look that would please Wes Anderson, magic is worked with Balaguer’s most traditional recipes.
But a step further, in the next door, opened a few months ago his Tea Room, a real treat where you can try some of the most groundbreaking inventions of Balaguer.
Fernando VI Street, 2
Gran Café de Gijón
One of the historic literary cafes in Madrid, founded in 1888 by the Asturian Don Gumersindo García. This famous café has been a meeting point for artists, intellectuals and writers, and around its tables have been held gatherings and sat personalities such as Ramón y Cajal, Pio Baroja, Pérez Galdós, Valle-Inclán, Maruja Mallo, Celia Gámez, Carmen de Mora or Angelina Gatell.
The history of the Gran Café de Gijón could be written from name to name, and both its present and its future will be forever linked to the history of Madrid. One of those emblematic businesses of which there are few left.
Paseo de Recoletos, 21
Where to eat and drink in Salesas
Arce Sisters
The Arce Sisters, Elena and Ana, have achieved a balance between café and restaurant that is hard to find. A Nordic touch, French spirit and Mediterranean cuisine in which everything is made, from bread to cakes. A fact that reflects this very well is that it does not have a microwave. Although their breakfasts are well known for their homemade pastries, meals are their strong point -so much so that they do not serve dinner: they close at 17.30h.
Between 15 and 20€.
Calle Marqués de Monasterio, 6
Macera Taller Bar (cocktail bar)
It is a bar. It is a workshop. It is a space for mixology lovers and for the brave. Brave because here, in Macera, flavors are macerated, liquors are distilled and surprise is played with each cocktail. If you want more, leave Salesas and go to 7 Ventura de la Vega street, to Macera Club… and let yourself go until the wee hours of the morning.
Cocktails from 7 €.
Calle San Mateo, 21
Quispe Restaurant
Quispe opened in the Alonso Martínez area four years ago and its success can be understood from many points. One, perhaps, is the comparison. Peruvian gastronomy is no longer a fashion: its consolidation can be read in the menus of almost any bar preceded by the word gastro, which includes a cebiche among its offer.
The comparison is a value and I say this because Quispe incorporates in its menu a series of dishes of rare knowledge and difficult to find in other Peruvian restaurants in Madrid.
Calle de Orellana, 1 (Alonso Martínez).
Around 45€ per person.
Jack’s Library
Jack’s Library is a flower shop selling freeze-dried plants and candles and a bookstore selling cocktails. Murray, who is the owner, says “I came to Madrid ten years ago and since then I have only made cocktails”.
The cocktail-making experience comes from the bar that adjoins Jack’s Library. Ficus -which is what it’s called and is another homage to grandma- is also Murray’s and there he makes contemporary cocktails. The speakeasy next door offers a more classic menu. Regarding this, Murray says: “the simple cocktails are the ones you enjoy and repeat” and adds “if it has seven layers of flavors and truffle from Kazakhstan and soybean oil and six seaweeds… it tastes great, but it tires you out”.
Calle de Santo Tomé, 6.
Around €12 per cocktail.
Shuwa Shuwa
Shuwa shuwa has been spreading the sake culture (it is a bar specialized in sake) in Madrid for some time. And with the desire to consolidate not only as a restaurant, but as a school of dissemination, place of courses and commitment to the culture of rice wine, their work is doubly interesting because you enjoy, of course, and learn.
Calle del Conde de Xiquena, 12
Tasting menu: 68€ per person + 18€ with sake pairing.
What to see in Salesas
Plaza de la Villa de París
Although it’s next to Colón, it’s an opposite square: there’s not a car here (beyond those parked in the court instances). It is not often you find such a green and pleasant place, without terraces, kiosks or other businesses scattered around the space. And it is precisely the lack of bustle that gives a dazzling atmosphere to a corner that, moreover, is presided over by the stately stamp of the Supreme Court. The trees, statues and surrounding buildings give the square a Parisian air, living up to its name, which can remind one of the Luxembourg garden in miniature.
Place de la Villa in Paris
St. Barbara Parish Church
This is the main parish of the Salesas neighborhood. Its origins date back to the 18th century, when Bárbara de Braganza founded the (now disappeared) Convent of the Salesas Reales, which today houses the Supreme Court. In its beginnings it was used as a school for daughters of noble families and the queen contemplated it as a place of retirement in case King Ferdinand VI died before her.
The entrance to the temple, one of the most impressive in Madrid, is preceded by a garden and a large double staircase, the work of Miguel Durán Salgado.
Bárbara de Braganza Street, 1
Cachito de Cielo
“Jesus is waiting for you.” With these words the access door to the chapel Cachito de Cielo welcomes every day the faithful and curious who come to it. It is a very special chapel because, among other things, it remains open 24 hours a day without interruption. This makes it, since 2010, one of the four sites of the capital of perpetual adoration, “exposing Jesus sacramentalized to be adored 24 hours a day, 365 days a year,” according to the web site Adoración Eucarística Perpetua en España (Perpetual Eucharistic Adoration in Spain).
This small chapel, in neoclassical style, belongs to the Missionaries of the Blessed Sacrament and Mary Immaculate and is located on the first floor of a nineteenth century building that, if you do not know what it houses, goes completely unnoticed.
Travesía de Belén, 1
What to do in Salesas
Abanuc
Abanuc is one of the most special beauty stores in Madrid and not only because it has a selection of the most exclusive niche brands. This shop in the Salesas neighborhood was in its former life a bookstore specializing in law that has kept its old hardwood shelves, only now there are creams, perfumes and candles on its shelves from brands such as Diptyque or Byredo, among others.
Plaza de las Salesas, 10
Taschen
Taschen, which is the bookstore of the eponymous publishing house, extends its network of bookstores to thirteen metropolises such as Berlin, London, Paris, Hong Kong and, from 2020, Madrid. Madrid has thus been elevated to the status of a city-with-a-Taschen-bookstore.
Taschen’s publishing catalog specializes in art, design, architecture, photography and film. And many of its editions are collector’s editions. Examples of the latter are Dalí’s Tarot book or, one of the most popular, The Personal Archives of Stanley Kubrick.
Calle de Barquillo, 30
Despacio Concept Store
The key to this concept store is in its name: Despacio. All brands, whether interior design, fashion or stationery, respect the rules of responsible processes and without great economic ambitions, small collections, in which the concept and aesthetics prevail. It is a perfect store to buy a detail or gift, such as Hay’s jars, Ferm Living glasses, or Kartotek Copenhagen’s notebooks and pens.
Calle de Belén, 10
La Peliculera
At La Peliculera it is common to have to wait in line before entering the store.Analog photography is in fashion, and the number of recent visitors interested in cameras, especially second-hand ones, types of film and different formats with which you can create your own is increasing. They also have courses for those who want to go deeper – they even repair broken cameras.
Calle de Argensola, 2
María Guerrero Theater
It is often said of every startup that it is complicated, and the case of the Teatro María Guerrero is no exception, but it definitely confirms the rule. The theater was inaugurated in October 1885 under the name Teatro de la Princesa, and the event was attended by Queen María Cristina and Isabel II, as well as the crème de la crème of the society of the time.
Only a few weeks later Alfonso XII died and, as a consequence of the mourning in the court, leaving the theater in a delicate economic situation. In 1908 it was acquired by María Guerrero and her husband, under whose direction authors such as Jacinto Benavente, Valle-Inclán, Muñoz Seca, Álvarez Quintero and Benito Pérez Galdós premiered.
Since 1978 it has been the headquarters of the Centro Dramático Nacional and its main hall has a seating capacity of 538.
Tamayo y Baus Street, 4
This article was written by Alberto del Castillo, María F. Carballo, Isabel Nieto, Lucía Mos and Elena Francés.